Your Enemies Closer
by Syn2
Summary: AU Fic: Wesley has a plan to get Connor back, but Angelus and Demon Cordy have plans too. C/A W/F G/A F/L
1. Chapter One

Title: Your Enemies Closer (Prologue/Chapter 1/?)  
Author: Syn  
Rating: R  
Spoilers: Up to The Price I guess, but Connor never came out of the rift.  
Couples: You'll have to read it to find out.   
Archive: Take it, spread the love.  
Disclaimer: Relax, I'm just playing with them.  
Summary: "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. Sometimes, too close..." (I just couldn't summarize this fic well, sorry)  
A/N: I wanted to write a seriously AU fic where everything was as fucked up as possible, yet still coherent. Beware: This is a bit angsty and a bit dark, with some lighter moments thrown in. I hope I do a good job of balancing the two. If not, feel free to flame. I can take it.  
  
Feedback is not only welcome, it's encouraged.   
  
******************  
  
Prologue:  
  
Setting---A dark alley, Los Angeles 2005  
  
For one quick moment, he wondered why every big moment in his life happened on a dark and stormy night. He wondered that, pondered that for just one moment before he felt the pain surge in his stomach and he looked up at the woman before him.  
  
Her hair was plastered across her eyes, her chest heaving, rain slicking down her face. Her lips were crimson and drawn into a frown, fingers bloodied and bone-white as they clutched the wooden object in her hands. His heart lurched, his guts twisted, clenched around that impossibly sharp weapon in her fingers.   
  
Then he looked down, down at the bloody wound in his stomach. His white shirt was stained bright red, his fingers trembling. Looking back up into that pale, dark-eyed face, he swallowed hard and tried to find words. None came.  
  
"Oh. Fuck. Oh Jesus. Oh Fuck." She muttered, nearly moaned before she wrenched the stake out of his gut. He cried out and collapsed to his knees in a puddle thick with the ashes of the vampire he'd just dusted. Cold seemed to spark along his spine and seep slowly across his heart.  
  
"I..." His lips moved and words were whispered through his clenched teeth. She bent, reaching for him like she could help if she could just touch him. Like she could make it all better with a brush of fingertips across his forehead.   
  
Her movement was stopped by a gloved hand on her wrist. She jumped and leapt away from him, staring back into the eyes of the shorter red-haired woman.   
  
"What the fuck is he doing here?" The other woman asked, taking a drag off of her cigarette before flicking it down into the puddle he was slowly sinking into. Her green eyes trailed over the sodden, ripped state of his clothing and the blood seeping from between his fingers. She half-smiled and looked back up at her new recruit.   
  
"I...he just came out of nowhere..." That was all she could say through her trembling lips. She grimaced as a droplet of blood trickled down the stake to her wrist. The stake was quickly dropped from her nerveless fingers with a clatter. "We have to..."  
  
"Go. We gotta get out of here. Where he is, the rest of those bastards are and we don't need to deal with them right now. Come on." The redhead jerked her thumb in the direction of the big black van parked alongside the alley before turning on her heels.   
  
"But...we can't just..." Shock was so complete, she couldn't find words for the conflicted emotions she was feeling.   
  
"We can. We are. You coming or not?" Green eyes blazed as the woman wheeled on her. She looked and saw the reluctance in the taller woman's eyes. She wavered, teetered on just walking away and doing the right thing. She opened her mouth to speak.  
  
Suddenly, a shout rang out, the call of a name she knew only too well echoing off the brick walls. The redhaired woman started, reached blindly for her wrist and dragged her through the alley with as much force as she could muster.  
  
The young woman spared a glance back to the man in the puddle, his face as pale as the lightning flashing above them, his shirt soaked with rain and blood. Memories of old sprang to her mind and she closed her eyes against the pain, wondering why the hell she cared so much.   
He'd gotten in her way. It wasn't her fault. That's what she kept telling herself as the van door was slammed, hiding the sight of that fallen, bleeding figure from her eyes.   
  
She realized she was crying.   
  
In the alley, the man heard his name being called and lifted his head out of the puddle long enough to shout an answer. He layed his head back down, his muscles feeling weak and aching. He took deep, pain-filled breath and felt his gut seering, the air from his nostrils rippling the water beneath his cheek.   
  
Darkness crept up around him and he felt himself sinking into a deep, impossibly quiet embrace. He lingered on her brown eyes and wondered, pondered her existence.   
  
Wesley passed out just as Gunn found him, thoughts of Faith on his mind.  
  
******************  
  
Chapter One:   
  
Setting---Wolfram & Hart   
  
"She's out of prison. We thought you'd like to know." Lilah Morgan stared across her desk, somewhat nervously. Quick hazel eyes mapped her face, lingered on the hollow below her ear and swept across her collarbone. An amused quirk at the corners of the ruby red lips didn't seem to match the hungry eyes and Lilah stifled a shiver.  
  
"She is, is she? Now that is interesting...." The cocky male voice came from behind her and Lilah forced down her nervous fear with a tight lipped smile.   
  
"Well, considering she's The Slayer, yes." She answered, swiveling in her chair to meet the dark eyes and the smirking grin haphazardly strewn across the handsome, deadly face before her. "Well?"  
  
"Well what? She's not a problem." The female leaned back against the plush leather cushions and propped her long, smooth legs on the edge of the lawyer's desk.   
  
"And why not, pray tell?"   
  
"Oh yes, tell her baby. I love it when you explain things."   
  
A quick, impossibly bright smile was shot in his direction as the dark-haired female swung her legs off the desk and leaned forward. "Because we've got a plan. A good plan. A full-proof plan that doesn't involve the Slayer. Or the Hunters or Connor Investigations. It does, however, involve you."  
  
A raised eyebrow was all she sent in questioning and the brunette narrowed her eyes.   
  
"Come on, tell her." Another prideful prod from the tall, dark-clad male in the corner and she continued, her eyes bright as she fixed them on Lilah's square face.   
  
"We know about the prophecy. The one you're so keen on keeping hidden from us. By the way, good work with keeping that a secret." Lilah's eyes widened and she opened her mouth, jaw almost unhinging. How did they know?  
  
"How did you know?" She echoed her own thoughts and sat back in the chair, reaching for the hidden button beneath the desk.   
  
"Killed a guy in your mailroom: boy was he pissed at you. Told me everything before I ripped his throat out." His voice was hard and rough in her ear and she tightened her grip on the edge of the desk, ready to press the button at any moment.   
  
"So? Now you know everything. What the fuck are you going to do about it?"   
  
"No, the question is, what are *you* doing about it?" The female asked and turned a wicked smile on Lilah.   
  
"We're trying to stop it of course. No one wants a Cataclysm before we're ready for one." Lilah bit back, her eyes shifting back and forth between the two of them. He moved up beside his lover and wrapped his arms around her thin shoulders.   
  
"You hear that? She wants to stop the world from ending too soon! We can't have that, now can we, baby?" He whispered in her ear as she leaned back against the cushions, fingers snaking up into his own.   
  
"Of course not." She tilted her head up to kiss him, tongue languidly trailing across his lips before she pulled back and shot Lilah a deadly glare, a smile spreading across her crimson lips. "Get your fucking hand off that button or I'll rip your fingernails off."  
  
Lilah's hand snatched away from the button and she drew her hands up into the open. She eyed the demoness before her and drew a deep breath. "So, what are two going to do?"  
  
"We're going to end the world. And you're going to help us." She answered lightning quick, her fingers still curled around the vampire's pale digits.   
  
"Sorry. Against company policy to end the world without their say-so." Lilah smirked, her eyebrows quirking   
  
"Oh? Perhaps I can change your mind?" As he spoke, his visage melted, eyes going from dark brown to glittering gold and his teeth descending onto his ruby lips. "Whatya say? Do we have a deal?"   
  
A chill once again went up her spine and she knew he wasn't kidding. Not this time and not now. "A deal for what?" Lilah asked, eyebrow arching again.  
  
"We'll let you know. Until then, leave it all up to us." The demoness spoke, rising up out of her seat, quick eyes flicking over Lilah's face once more. She smiled again and Lilah was nearly blinded by the light coming off of her in waves. "And whatever you do, don't tell your little bosses about what we're doing, or I'll just have to kill you. And I hate that."  
  
The light faded, Lilah's skin slightly pink from the scorching heat of the woman before her.   
  
"I understand. Cordelia." She answered, blinking away spots. Another smile and the demoness looped her arm through the vampire's. They turned as one and he reached for the door handle. "Oh, and Angelus?"  
  
"Yes, Miss Morgan?" Angelus turned, a smirk on his lips once more.   
  
"What about the Slayer?"   
  
"I killed the last one didn't I?" Was all she heard as the door slammed behind them. She let out a deep breath and licked her lips.   
  
"I hate those two!" Lilah growled into the empty air and rubbed her temples. This was going to be a pain in the ass, not to mention the mound of paperwork. Did she mention she really hated those two?  
  
*****************  
  
Setting---Connor Investigations, two days later  
  
Anne was tired and her head was swimming. Pictures of demons and their descriptions were burned into her bright blue retinas and she blinked rapidly to clear their shadows away. Research was admittedly not her forte, but as there was no one else around to do it, she had to take up the slack.   
  
"What the hell is a Tarvlak demon?" She mused out loud, pushing a strand of blonde hair out of her face distractedly.   
  
Just then, the front doors of the Hyperion swung open and in walked the one man she'd been waiting all day for.   
  
"Thank God you're back!" Anne called, her elfin face scrunching up as she struggled to her feet. She dropped the stack of papers in her hands and waddled over to him, her giant belly swinging as she went. Wesley smiled at her and pressed his hand against her belly. "I was so worried!"  
  
"Well, I'm here and you don't have to worry anymore." Wes smiled and shrugged his shoulders, trying to ignore the ripple of pain that spread across his own belly. The stitches pulled taunt and then went slack as he stopped his movements.   
  
"But, you're going to be okay...?" He opened his mouth to answer her question, but he was interrupted by a booming male voice.  
  
"Hey! Get your hands off my wife!" Wesley swiveled in place and met the smiling eyes of Charles Gunn. The black man descended the front steps of the hotel and dropped the huge duffel bag in his hands onto the floor.   
  
"Sorry, but she's so beautiful when she's pregnant." Wesley grinned as he brushed a kiss across Anne's smooth, glowing cheek. At Gunn's narrowed gaze, Wesley threw up his hands and backed up a pace, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.   
  
"Yeah, she is, isn't she?" Gunn moved up and placed a moist kiss on his wife's lips, his fingers spreading out across the bulging belly. "How's the squirt?"  
  
"Kicking like the dickens. And how is his father?" Anne asked, tracing a line across Gunn's jaw with one pale finger.   
  
"Tired, dirty and annoyed at English over there." A jerk of his head was sent in Wesley's direction and the Brit looked up.   
  
"What did I do this time?" Wesley murmered, picking up Anne's dropped files and flipping through the thin parchment.   
  
"Hmm...where do I start? First you go off on a patrol, when you should have been back here resting. THEN you get yourself stabbed by someone named Faith. And THEN you refuse to stay in the hospital, against the doctor's wishes! Not to mention you're just an uptight English asswad, but we won't get into that now..."  
  
Wesley glanced up at him over the rim of his glasses and sighed heavily, ignoring the pain in his stomach. "That all?"   
  
"Well, you bled on my new shirt."   
  
"My apologies." Wes said dryly, putting the file back down and looking around the wide lobby, as if he expected someone to jump out at him Usually, that was the case; today was a slow day.   
  
"So, who's Faith?" Anne asked, waddling back over to the couch and sinking down onto the soft cushions. Gunn sat down beside her, his eyes curious as he looked up expectantly up at the boss of Connor Investigations.   
  
"She's a Slayer. THE Slayer actually." Wesley said, painfully remembering the fact that she was the only one left of his two failures.   
  
"I know that, Wes. And you were her Watcher, right. She, um....tortured you, didn't she?" Gunn asked, his his hand slipping into Anne's and squeezing hard.   
  
"Yes, she did. And then she went to prison and I have no idea why she's out and I don't care so let's just move on to other business, shall we?" He said in a rush, slamming his blue eyes shut as he remembered the pain and fear in those dark brown pools. Then he remembered the pain, as if he could ever forget it, and he sneered, pushing the image away from himself.   
  
Anne exchanged a glance with Charles, but neither one opted to comment on his avoidance of the subject. When Charles finally spoke up, he did so with a soft voice. "She was working with Justine and the Hunters. Is that why you're not concerned?"  
  
"I didn't say I wasn't concerned. I just don't want to talk about it. She's obviously working for them and that's a good thing; the Hunters do good around this city, as you two well know. As long as she leaves us alone. Her and Justine." He spat the last name and groped along his throat to the old scar across his jugular.   
  
"Yeah they do some good, which is the reason Anne and I both joined them after...well after things went to shit around here. But bro..."  
  
"Charles, drop it." Anne said, glaring at her husband and digging her fingernails into his palm. He winced and nodded his head, blowing out a tense breath. None of them liked to be reminded of the incidents of two years ago, it brought back too much pain.   
  
Anne looked beyond Gunn and eyed her friend. She admired the strength in him and the deep longing to help the world that ran through him. Admired and hated him for it because that longing was killing him. Slowly but surely, it was killing him.  
  
Looking him up and down, she could see he wasn't the same man she'd met four years ago. Now he had a careworn, haggard appearance to his scarecrow frame. Wide streaks of white hair colored his temples, fading back into the dark bramble of his hair. His hands were scarred and callused, his mouth lined with frown lines. He looked old, and not from the lapse of time.   
  
"You look like hell, Wesley. Why did you do it again?" Anne asked, her eyebrows drawn up in concern. Wes looked up and regarded her with a cool, impassive stare.  
  
"I did what I had to." He clipped, stalking off into the dark confines of his office. She watched as the light went on and the door slammed.   
  
"You're right. He is an uptight English asswad." She said, sighing heavily and placing her head on Gunn's broad shoulder. He kissed her cheek and grunted in agreement. "Next time he tries to go to that shaman, stop him. Do whatever it takes; knock him out, whatever. Just don't let him go."  
  
"You know that won't stop him, baby. He'll just find a way to do it himself and he won't stop until he's gotten enough power stored." Gunn answered her wearily, his chocolate brown eyes fixed on the office door.  
  
"Maybe, but at least try next time. It's killing him."   
  
"He knows that and he doesn't care." The new voice made Charles swivel his head and he regarded the green demon with a concerned expression.  
  
"You read him?" Gunn asked, eyebrow arching as Lorne collapsed in the big orange couch across from them. The demon's one good eye glinted at them, his spikey hair unkempt and the sleeves of his torn shirt rolled up in an effort to hide the blood stains on the material.   
  
"Didn't need to. His aura is screaming it." Lorne said, doggedly running a hand through his hair and grimacing as he felt it crackle with dried blood.   
  
"Why is he doing this to himself?" Anne asked the anagogic demon, her hand smoothing over her round belly. Lorne leaned forward and placed a lime green hand over the bulging skin, a smile playing at the corners of his thin red lips before he let it slide off and he went serious again.  
  
"Because it's the only way to make everything right again." At Anne's look, he waved his hand and sank back against the soft cushions and put a thumb in his mouth. He didn't feel like explaining the finer points of redemption at the moment. Not when he'd just had a bad session.  
  
"So...uh...how is she?" Gunn asked, changing the topic and glancing up the stairs. Lorne followed his gaze and heaved a heavy sigh.   
  
"That mandrake powder Wes got her worked. She's out like a light, poor thing."   
  
"And the blood?" Anne raised her eyebrows and bit her lip, praying it wasn't what she thought it was.  
  
"Her nose again."   
  
Anne's face fell and she felt tears springing to her eyes. "This is killing her."  
  
"There's a lot of that going around lately." Lorne answered, his cycloptic visage darkening with sorrow. His heart ached to think about the loss of his brightness, but he couldn't help but feel that he'd already lost her. Damn the Powers for doing this to her.   
  
And damn Cordelia for letting them.  
  
*****************  
  
Setting---A warehouse somewhere in Compton  
  
"You didn't tell me about Wesley." Faith growled, her arms crossed over her chest, a strand of dark brown hair across her eyes. She flicked her head to dislodge it and peered at the redhaired woman before her.  
  
"Yes I did." Justine insisted, not looking up from her perch on a battered chair where she was sharpening a stake.   
  
"No you didn't. You only said we were going to kill some vampires. You never mentioned Wesley." Faith said, her eyes shifting back and forth in their sockets as she wondered how fast she could move so that she could rip the bitch's head off. Pretty damned fast.  
  
"How do you know him?"  
  
"Ex-Watcher. I tortured him." Faith said mechanically, her emotions far removed from the past. She'd long ago numbed herself to the wrongs she'd done. She was a different person now; but it wasn't like that mattered now. Her past had found a way to come back and bite her in the ass, it seemed.  
  
"Really? I knew there was a reason I liked you." Justine glanced up at her and smiled, but Faith only returned a hateful glare.  
  
"The feeling isn't mutual. Why do you hate Wes?"   
  
"You want a list?" Off Faith's look, she continued, "He runs an investigations agency out of some old hotel and he tends to get in my way. Plus, he stole a couple of my recruits a few years back. Oh, and I slit his throat once; really he's just a fucking asshole."  
  
Faith was silent a moment, letting the informations sink into her brain. Finally she spoke up, her voice low and thick. "This big daddy vampire you want me to kill, what's his name?"  
  
"Angelus. Why?" Justine said automatically before her eyes went knowingly bright. "Oh, you would know him, right? After all, he and Pryce were pretty chummy there for a while. That didn't last too long..."  
  
"What happened?" Faith asked, sinking to the dirty floor of the warehouse. Behind her, she could hear the other recruits training. She blocked out the sounds and turned her attention to the leader of the ragtag army that called themselves the Hunters.  
  
With a smile, Justine told Faith everything that had happened. Faith listened raptly, things falling into place where there had been gaping holes before. Now she knew why Angel had abandoned her in prison, why she'd believed he was dead and not just his old self again. It all fell horribly into place and she shuddered.   
  
"So, this Holtz guy, he stole Angel's son?" Faith ended, running her thumb along her lower lip in thought. She saw Justine's hard eyes soften at the mention of the man's name and she smiled longingly into space.   
  
"Yeah. He did." Justine said, her eyes far away for a moment before she snapped back to the present. "This is his legacy I'm carrying on. His goal was always to kill Angelus and I'm not stopping until I do. I don't give a fuck who gets in my way. Connor Investigations or even you."  
  
Faith's gaze snapped up to the older woman's hard face and she smiled widely. "Don't worry about me. I'll kill Angelus for you."  
  
"And Wyndham-Pryce?"   
  
"Fuck him. He won't be a problem." Faith said, lifting her chin pridefully. Justine smiled.  
  
"Good to hear it." Justine stood and walked away, shouting out orders to the sparring men and women spread out across the wide floor of the warehouse.   
  
Faith watched her go for a moment and then she stood and grabbed for her sword. She jogged to the door, slamming it shut behind her. As she walked out into the night, heading toward the Hyperion, she whispered to the wind, "He won't be a problem at all."  
  
(end chapter)  
  
**************** 


	2. Chapter Two

Title: Your Enemies Closer (Chapter 2/?)  
Author: Syn  
Rating: R  
Spoilers: Up to The Price I guess, but Conner didn't come out of the rift.  
Couples: C/A, W/F, G/A, & L/F  
Archive: Take it, spread the love.  
Disclaimer: Relax, I'm just playing with them.  
Summary: "You keep your friends close...and your enemies closer. Sometimes you can't tell which is which."   
A/N: Thank you thank you to everyone who reviewed "Running For Our Lives". Your sequel is coming very soon, I promise! :)  
  
Feedback is not only welcome, it's encouraged and appreciated!  
  
  
*********************  
  
Setting---Angelus and Cordelia's mansion  
  
It was quiet here for midnight. Everywhere else teamed with nightlife, but here, it was quiet. No gangs, no gunfire and no police sirens wailing. No, here it was quiet and she didn't like that sometimes.  
  
The quiet left no room for forgetting and she would linger in the past and mourn a thing she'd never thought much about. She didn't want to, because she didn't care it was gone. But...she did, no matter how much she tried to fool herself. She did. There was a tiny sliver of memory inside of her that remembered what it had been like back then.  
  
Back when she had a mission. Back when she still had a soul.  
  
Her eyes closed, breath shuddering in her lungs and the crush of a cold body against her back keeping her in place on the wide, satin-sheeted bed. She let her mind drift.   
  
How long ago had it been? She counted up the years since Connor had been stolen and everything had gone to hell, her along with it. Three years since that night with Angel. Two years since that night she'd lost it all. It still hurt to even try to conjure up images of her family sprawled in pain, but they came anyway, unbidden and sharply detailed. Blood, Fred screaming and a large, gaping hole in her heart that had been painful and absolute for one moment before something had taken her over and driven everything out.  
  
One solitary tear leaked down her pale cheek and she let it spill onto the red satin, watching the material turn dark crimson where it fell. Everything inside her hurt, longed with certainty for those times, but she knew she couldn't have them. She'd fucked up and lost everything.   
  
A restless movement at her back made her smile, despite the leaden feel of her heart in her chest. His lips were moist along her skin and his body was solid, a wall against the pain. As she always did, she let herself believe he could stop the hurt and make her feel something besides that pain. He loved her. It was enough sometimes to make it all fade.  
  
"You awake?" Cordelia asked, shifting on the bed and feeling him nuzzle her neck with his nose. A shiver ran down her spine and circled back up her stomach, settling in the place where her heart had been.   
  
Angelus smiled against her skin and she felt his hands snake their way up her smooth legs to her stomach. His cold fingers kneaded into the skin and flicked playfully back into the folds of her silk gown. "You're thinking too loudly. What's up?"   
  
"Faith. She could be a problem." She lied, running from the thoughts of the past and focusing on the future. The one she hoped to end.   
  
"Never. Killed Buffy didn't I?" He smirked and her shoulders stiffened automatically. "Sorry." He amended immediately, pressing his moist lips against her throat.  
  
"It's okay. But Faith is different from...the other Slayer. She's unpredictable and wild." Cordelia said and turned in his arms, a long strand of brown hair falling across her cheek. He lifted a hand and swiped it away, his dark eyes serious.   
  
"I know that. She's going to be a challenge."  
  
"Since when has that ever stopped you?" Cordelia teased him, her leg tangling with his as she drew him closer.  
  
"Never, I love challenges. That's why I still love you; you challenge me to stay sane and to not kill you every other minute." Angelus said, his fingers sweeping against the swell of her breasts. She smacked his questing fingers away and grinned at him.  
  
"You're not just saying that?"  
  
"Why would I do that?" He muttered and then crushed his mouth to hers, drawing her up into his arms and pulling her gown off with his free hand. As he pressed his lips against her skin, thoughts of what could have been flitted out of her mind. Now was the only thing she needed. Now until she ended it all.  
  
Now...until she made all the pain stop. And then, a quiet so deep even she could forget.  
  
*******************  
  
Setting---Connor Investigations, the Hyperion Hotel  
  
"Damn it!" Wesley growled for the hundredth time that night, slamming the file in his hands back down onto the desk. His mind wasn't anywhere in the vicinity of where it should have been and he knew it. And considering he'd just read the same paragraph twenty times and had yet to figure out he was reading the cellphone manual, his mind was definitely elsewhere.   
  
He knew where and it pissed him off, made his guts lurch and his heart to...well he didn't want to think about that. What he wanted was to make those damned rain-soaked brown eyes to go away and leave him in peace for five minutes.   
  
Heaving a huge sigh, he leaned forward, resting his head on the edge of the desk and feeling the cool surface of the wood against his skin. Outside the office, he could hear Gunn and Anne leaving, heading back to their quaint little apartment a few blocks away. Lorne, he knew, would head back upstairs and wearily curl up on his bed, resting before he had to get up and go back to the losing battle he fought every night.   
  
Wesley hadn't missed the conversation about her health, in fact, he'd had his ear pressed to the door, listening to every word they'd said. He felt sick to his stomach at the news because he knew her time was running out. Lorne knew it too and it was breaking his heart. The visions were going to kill her and it was all his fault.   
  
"Fuck." Wes cursed under his breath, feeling the weight of the world settling heavily on his shoulders once more. This was all getting too much. First Angel and then Cordelia...and now...well they were all going to hell. And this thing with Faith? It was too much.  
  
Another deep sigh and he lifted his head up, his eyes widening as he stared into the very pair of brown orbs he'd been trying to forget. She was seated, sprawled in the chair opposite him, her legs crossed her and hands folded primly in her lap. He hadn't even heard her come in and he marvelled at her stealth.   
  
"Faith...?" He began after a long, heavy silence that seemed to stretch for ages. A silence she didn't even begin to disrupt. She looked him up and down, her sharp gaze lingering on the white streaks in his hair and the general state of disarray his clothing was in. One eyebrow arched and then she smiled.  
  
"Hey Wes." Faith let the smile take over her face, but it wasn't friendly. It was sharp, full of razors and hidden pitfalls that he didn't want to traverse.   
  
"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be out killing vampires for Justine?" He forced himself to say the name and watched as she grimaced visibly. "She doesn't like her recruits to contact me."  
  
"Fuck her. I'm no one's fucking recruit." She answered, the smile still there, but a scowl was trying to edge it's way in slowly.  
  
"Good to know your vocabulary has improved." Wes said dryly, crossing his arms over his chest and wincing when the stitches pulled. She caught the faint flicker of pain in his eyes and shifted in her seat uncomfortably.  
  
"Fuck off."  
  
"Why the hell are you here?" Wesley interrupted, leaning forward and peering at her with dark eyes.   
  
"I came here to kill you." She answered bluntly, lifting a sword out from beside her chair. Wesley started, reaching for the gun he kept strapped to his ankle a second before she threw the sword across the room. It imbedded itself in the wall to the hilt, quivering like a tuning fork in the plaster for a long, silent moment. When she spoke again, he turned his attention back to her with wide eyes. "But I'm not going to."   
  
"I see...and why is that?"   
  
"Because, you look like killing you would be doing you a favor. And I'd never do you any favors." She smirked and leaned back in the chair, that sardonic eyebrow rising and hovering just above her right eye.   
  
"Good to know." He commented, his hand lifting from the cuff of his jeans and spreading flat against the surface of the desk. "So, you're working for the Hunters. They do good in this city."  
  
"And they hate you. Big surprise, eh?"   
  
"Not really, no. Justine and I have an...interesting past." Wesley said, his hand lifting to his throat before he could stop it.   
  
"She slit your throat, stole Angel's kid and left you for dead. Right?" Faith leaned forward, her fingers dipping into the candy dish on the edge of his desk and popping Skittles into her mouth nonchalantly.   
  
"That's pretty much it, I suppose."  
  
"She's a fucking bitch."   
  
"Yes, I've come to that conclusion myself. On many occaisions." Wesley half-smiled and let his gaze walk over her face. Five years hadn't softened her at all. She looked as hard, yet as breakable as glass still. There was a sad glint in her eyes that had previously been hidden, but now had free reign with her expressions. That sharp smile was still in place, but it seemed false, like he was looking at her mask. And he probably was, he reckoned.  
  
"So...? You run Angelus's business now?" He didn't miss the two extra letters at the end of the name, or the fact that she had turned those sad, hard eyes up to his, questions and answers running between them.  
  
"Yes I do. My collegues and I."   
  
"And Angelus?"  
  
"On the list of things to do." He sighed wearily and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb. She smirked again and nodded her head.   
  
"Mine too. I believe some demon chick is also on that list. What's her name again....?"  
  
Wesley's blood ran cold and he stared at her stonily. "Her name is Cordelia."  
  
"Oh yeah. That's the name! Sounds vaguely familiar....hm...."   
  
"Cut the shit Faith." Wesley said sharply, standing up and glaring down at her. Hurt blossomed up over his heart in spasmic waves and he felt the stitches shift with him. Faith glared up at him for a second and then popped another Skittle in her mouth.   
  
"I'm going to kill them." She smiled, nodding her head and chewing thoughtfully.  
  
"I have no doubt about that. Is that what you came here to tell me?"   
  
"Yes. And to tell you and your PI's to stay out of the way." She countered, still seated.  
  
"Sometimes we have to get in the way. It's....necessary." His gaze travelled from her pale face to the ceiling, imagining what was upstairs, sleeping blissfully without dreaming.  
  
"And sometimes people get hurt. How's the gut wound, by the way?" Faith asked, her eyes trailing down his body to the soft lump at his side where the bandages bunched.  
  
"Painful."  
  
"Just so you know, I didn't mean to. I thought you were...well not you, that's for damned sure." She shrugged and he guessed that was her form of apology.   
  
"Apology accepted. Now get the hell out of my hotel." His eyes were as hard as her smile and she flinched at the unbridled anger in his voice.   
  
"I.."  
  
"Now." His voice was a growl and she flinched again. A deep sigh and she stood, her body moving cat-like across the office. She looked back over her shoulder and stared him up and down, the brown, pain-filled eyes searching his for a moment before the mask slid down into place.  
  
"You know, you shouldn't piss me off." She stated, her eyes flicking back and forth.  
  
"I'm aware of that and I don't actually give a shit. Leave." He countered, his mouth set in a grim line. She regarded him with an impassive glare for a moment.  
  
Then, before he could move, she launched herself at him, shoving him roughly back against the wall. His back hit the hard surface and his breath spiraled out of his lungs at the impact. Her hands were strong and pressed painfully against his chest, pinning him there in a state of shock. She leaned in, standing on tiptoe to stand nose-to-nose with him, and spoke in a whisper.  
  
"You *really* shouldn't piss me off. Get in my way again and you'll find that out the hard way."   
  
For his part, he just glared back down at her, daring her to do what she promised. He ignored the pull of his stitches and the trickle of blood spreading from the wound. "I have a feeling I'm going to end up finding out, because I tend to get Justine's way."   
  
She released him and took a step back. "Screw Justine. I don't care about her. I'm talking about you and me, Watcher."  
  
"I'm not your Watcher. I doubt I was ever that in your eyes."   
  
"You're right. You were a joke. And you still are."  
  
"Get the fuck out. Now."   
  
She glared at him for another long, tense moment and then shrugged, turning on her heel and walking away. He watched as she walked by the sword buried in the wall, wrenching it out with one smooth, even stroke. As she reached the door again, he called out to her.  
  
"Faith?"  
  
"Hmm?" She turned, that razorblade smile back on her pale face once more.  
  
"Do me a favor and don't ever come here again." Wesley said, sitting back behind the desk and clutching his hand to his bleeding stomach. Her eyes flickered from his face to the wound again and the mask slipped.   
  
Then, a genuine smile smile stretched across her crimson lips and she turned on her heel and walked out the door.   
  
Wesley watched her go and found himself smiling, despite the pain. He had a feeling she'd be back and he didn't know why that thought excited him. And scared him.   
  
*****************  
  
When Faith walked out, she did so with shaking legs. That had been intense and it totally hadn't went the way she'd planned. Her intentions of killing him had, at the very best, been half-hearted and rooted in her anger. She didn't need the complications Wesley presented.   
  
Here he was, the object of her last great sin and she'd hurt him again. She wanted to be good, despite the feeling in her heart that she'd never be -quite- a white hat, and he was throwing it in her face what she'd been. So she'd reacted, like she had always done, with anger, showing him that mask she'd cultivated in prison and slipping into the role she'd been designated by him and everyone else from Sunnyhell.   
  
And, still smarting from the news about Angel, she'd threatened him.   
  
"Fuck." She cursed under her breath, running a hand through her long dark hair and sliding the sword into it's loop on her belt.   
  
No, this wasn't what she'd planned.   
  
"Have a nice chat?"   
  
Faith spun on her heel, the sword wrenched out of it's loop and pointed directly at the owner of the voice. Justine jumped back against the chain link fence, her eyes wide, but her mouth set in a grim scowl. The sword point touched her breast and stayed there, unwavering as Faith glared at her.  
  
"You followed me?" Faith asked with slitted eyes and gritted teeth. Justine met her glare and smiled nastily.  
  
"Didn't have to. I knew where you were going." She countered, pushing the sword away from her chest with one extended thumb. Faith lowered the sword and placed the point on the ground.   
"Why didn't you stop me?"   
  
"Stop you? Even I'm not that thick. You can see Asshole Pryce all you want, personally I don't fucking care. He's not my concern these days."  
  
"Angelus?" Faith asked, her eyebrow arching as she started to walk away from the fence and down the street. Justine followed her, keeping a respectful distance at her side.  
  
"And his demon bitch. He didn't talk you out of it, did he?" Justine jerked her head back in the direction of the hotel and Faith half-smiled.  
  
"Naww...gave me his blessing. So when are we going to get his ass? I'm itching for a good slay." Faith said, turning the subject from Wesley once again.   
  
"Tomorrow night. You up for it?"   
  
"Always." Faith answered, turning onto a side street and speeding up her steps. Justine followed quickly, her shorter legs pumping to keep up.   
  
"Good. I knew recruiting you was the best thing I ever did." Justine said in a soft voice. Faith snorted and turned on her.  
  
"Besides Holtz you mean?" Justine stared at her for a moment and then her eyes went hard. She stopped dead in her tracks and Faith stopped too, wondering if she'd said the wrong thing and not much caring if she had.   
  
"It wasn't like that." Justine growled, her green eyes flashing.  
  
"I'm sure it wasn't or else you wouldn't be acting like you hadn't gotten laid in ten years. Let's go." Faith shrugged her shoulders and kept walking, leaving the redhead standing there, glaring after her.   
  
Yep. Probably the wrong thing to say, but fuck, what did she care?  
  
(end chapter)  
  
*************** 


	3. Chapter Three

Your Enemies Closer  
---------------------------  
  
A/N: I know it's been forever since I updated. I just lost interest in writing for about half a month, which is odd for me. But I'm back and ready to party. ;)  
  
*****************  
  
Chapter Three:  
  
Setting---Outside Angelus and Cordelia's mansion, 8:01 p.m.-the next night  
  
Eric's voice crackled over the cellphone in Tor's hand. Justine waited impatiently for the news, crouching on her knees next to her second-in-command in the wooded park across from Angelus and Cordelia's sprawling mansion. Finally, Tor snapped the cellphone shut and turned to her.  
  
"The beast and his bitch are getting into the car..." Tor relayed, his dark brown features shadowed by the leaves of the manzanita bush he was crouched under.   
  
"Good. We can attack his minions if he's not there." Justine explained as her recruits gathered around her. She noticed Faith hovering in the back, her face shadowed by a mass of dark brown hair, her eyes burning holes in Justine.   
  
"What? We're not going after Angelus and Cordelia?" Marie exclaimed excitedly, tossing her spiky pink head, piercings jangling as she moved. Justine smiled in her direction and spoke up.  
  
"That's not the plan. Faith---" She gestured Faith forward with one callused hand and then continued, watching the Slayer pick her way through the crowd, a scowl on her face. "She'll take care of the beast and his demon."  
  
Marie didn't look convinced as she stared at Faith, a nasty smile crossing her sharp, ferret-like features. "Right, and who'll be picking up the bitch's corpse?"  
  
Quick as lightening, Faith spun around and brought her foot up, the steel toe hovering an inch from Marie's throat. Marie's eyes widened and she slammed her mouth shut. Her eyes got even wider as Faith flexed her toes and a stake slid out from the heel of her boot, pressing into the flesh on Marie's throat. "Watch your mouth, or I'll break your fucking neck. Got it?" Faith spat at the taller girl.  
  
"Got it." Marie answered breathlessly, her eyes nearly popping out their sockets. With that, Faith lowered her leg, the small stake sliding back into her boot heel as she went.   
  
Justine chuckled and smirked, then turned and motioned for the other's to follow her. Faith watched them go and then hopped in one of the gang's vans parked alongside the street. As she revved the engine to life, Justine tapped on the window.   
  
Faith rolled it down and stared icily at the older woman, her eyebrow quirking slightly. "They change you, I'll kill you where you stand." And before Faith could answer, the redhead spun on her heel and stalked back into the shadows.   
  
Faith spat out the window and then rolled down the street, her eyes glued to the taillights of Angelus's car. She wouldn't give them the chance to even touch her.  
  
******************  
  
  
Setting---Under Ravina Boulevard, 9:30 p.m.   
  
  
Pain like fire licked up the side of Elda's face, her eyes slamming shut and her nubby teeth grinding hard beneath the elegantly manicured nails of the woman before her. Blood seeped from the long slice that ran from her chin to her eye, dripping down onto the woman's white blouse like oily drops of black paint. Elda shook visibly and saw the demoness's companion lick his lips, his eyes flitting back and forth between hard gold and chocolate brown.  
  
"I swear...I don't know..." Elda said again, her voice shaking despite her attempts at schooling it. The woman clucked her tongue and lifted her fingers to shred the other cheek. Elda jerked her head back, and felt a rough male hand sink into her clumpy black hair, the strong digits digging into her scalp.   
  
"What did I say about lying to us?" The vampire said, his voice hot in her ear. Elda heaved a heavy sigh and stood very still.   
  
"Now tell us what we want to hear. Please." The please was laced with a wide smile as the woman placed her fingernail on Elda's other cheek. An audible gulp and Elda opened her mouth.  
  
"Okay, I'll tell you." The finger never wavered from her cheek as the woman's hazel eyes locked onto her black ones, the strong fingers in her hair gripping tighter in anticipation. "An associate of mine might be able to help you."  
  
"And your friend's name?" Elda felt the cold, moist touch of lips on one pointed ear, a tongue sliding along the curve of her lobe. She shivered against the feel of the vampire's tongue on her skin, fear creeping into her chest. Demon or no, she was fair game and she knew it.   
  
"Ordal. He's...he's an Oshet Mar." Elda explained, the spines across the top of her breasts flattening in fear. From the deep frown on the woman's face, Elda had a feeling she knew what an Oshet Mar was, and it didn't make her happy.   
  
"And where does Ordal live?" The vampire asked once more, his hands digging deeper into her scaly scalp.   
  
"Last I knew, a tank under the Beverly Center. But he may have moved, I don't know...we're kind of on the outs." Elda supplied, her oil-black eyes blinking rapidly under the dank lights.  
  
"The outs?" The woman asked her, head tilted so that a long strand of dark brown hair fell across her flawless face.  
  
"Ex-boyfriend." The woman wrinkled her nose and lowered her finger as if Elda's skin was poisonous.   
  
"Ew."  
  
"Tell me about it." Elda said, a nervous laugh escaping her throat as the woman shuddered, her tongue lolling out in what was obviously disgust at the visual. "So...umm...is that all? You..you're not going to kill me...are you?"  
  
"No. Let's go Angelus." Another wide smile and the woman turned on her stylish heels and clacked her way toward the exit. The grip in Elda's hair loosened and she felt the cold wall of marble that had been the vampire leave her back. She sighed heavily and lifted her nubby fingers to her sliced cheek as she watched the demoness walk away.  
  
"Cordelia?" A slight whine was in Angelus's voice as he walked past Elda, his dark features scowling after his partner. Cordelia turned on her heel and rolled her eyes, then leaned against the slimy brick wall of Elda's lair.   
  
"Fine, you big baby." Cordelia sighed, "Kill her."   
  
Elda started, backing away from the vampire as he turned on her, wide smile pasted to his lips and a bounce in his step. His forehead grew rigid as he walked and she gulped back a scream.   
  
"But...you said you wouldn't...I told you what I knew..." Elda protested, her back slamming into the wall behind her, black eyes wide as the vampire lunged at her. He grabbed Elda's short neck in his arms and twisted until something popped and fire laced through her spine. Then he grabbed for other spine and twisted it hard enough to make it creak loudly in protest, but not break it. Elda screamed and looked up through pain-filled eyes at the woman before her.  
  
"So I lied." Cordelia said as she came closer to watch, smiling that wide smile once more as she eyed Elda over the vampire's shoulder. "Besides...doesn't he look adorable when he's all bumpy?"  
  
And then, before Elda could even think of a retort, Angelus twisted her second spine once more, snapping it in three different places. The world spun away from her and she collapsed at the vampire's feet.   
  
"Well. That was fun." Angelus said, looking up at Cordelia as she sighed heavily and grabbed for his arm.   
  
"You and your mayhem. What am I going to do with you?"   
  
"Something naked, I hope." His jagged features were so hopeful, she couldn't help but laugh as she lead him out of the dead demon's lair.   
  
Her laughter stopped as something slammed into her side and knocked her face down on the hard brick.  
  
"Hello Cordelia." A familiar voice said.  
  
******************  
  
Setting---The Hyperion Hotel, 9:00 p.m.-earlier  
  
Gunn looked up as a scream pierced the hotel's quiet existence. For one second he stood there, his eyes squeezed shut, gripping the handle of the ancient ax he had been sharpening before he dropped it and joined Wesley on the stairs. The boss of Connor Investigations puffed along beside him as they ran up the stairs, one hand pressed to his wounded gut, the other on the rail for support.   
  
As soon as they reached the upstairs hallway, they heard Anne call from down below.   
  
"I'll get the needle!" Gunn waved a hand in his wife's direction and followed Wesley into the shadowed room at the end of the hallway.  
  
They entered the cave-like room and adjusted to the dim light as quickly as they could, feeling their way through the room to the figure in the middle of the floor. Lorne was already there, his hands full of the screaming, wailing girl.  
  
"Fred, Fred...please look at me baby. Please baby....please!" Lorne begged, his one good eye filling with tears, hair mussed and unshaven face lined with shadows so thick he looked emaciated. His hand smoothed over Fred's bare shoulders as he pleaded with her.  
  
Gunn dropped to one knee and took the girl's other hand in his own, trying to force some of his strength into her body. "Fred...honey...calm down..."  
  
"They...they're everywhere...little things...and they scream like pennies in the sky, dropping on the babies and the babies....oh God...the babies, I tried.....it hurt and I tried...." Fred babbled, her eyes glazing over, her breath heaving in her chest. Suddenly, thick, red blood dripped from her nose in a steady stream, trailing over her lips and staining her teeth as she spoke.   
  
Gunn hung his head as Lorne let out a low moan, his face buried against Fred's hair, his hands sweeping back across her shoulders to cradle her against him.   
  
"Wesley..." Gunn said, voice low and thick, his tear-filled eyes turning on the man standing in the middle of the room, completely frozen in place. "Wes...? We have to do something..."  
  
Finally, Wesley fell to one knee in front of the little Texan and he lifted her pointed chin with one hand, unmindful of the blood dripping down his fingers. "Fred....what did you see?"  
  
"What? Is that all you care about?" Lorne asked in a harsh whisper, his eyes boring into Wesley's as he pulled away from Fred. Wesley turned a blank stare in his direction.  
  
"It isn't and you know it. But the Powers sent her a vision for a reason and I'm not going to turn my back on an innocent." He answered icily, then turned his attention back to Fred, who was whimpering in Lorne's arms, half of her face bright red with her blood. "What did you see, Fred?"  
  
"Two! Two there's always two and they're looking for something...something I don't know. 6+7 is 13. 13-6 is 7. Somewhere between...and...and I don't know the formula for pie anymore. I used to know it and now it's all gone....all gone and I...I...." Her voice trailed off in a whimper and she looked up at Wesley, her body shaking.   
  
"What did you see?" Wes insisted, his blue eyes boring into hers. Lorne closed his eyes at the calluse tone in his voice. When she didn't answer, he tried again, his voice even harsher, his hand finding her wrist and squeezing hard. "Answer me, Winifred!"  
  
"Ow!" She squealed, trying to twist away from him. "Lorne...." She turned her big brown eyes on the demon and reached for him with her free hand. Lorne captured it in his own and held it to his lips, kissing it as if it were made of glass.   
  
"Tell him baby. Tell him and the voices'll stop....tell him..." Lorne whispered, his eyes harsh on Wesley's face as the Englishman squeezed a little tighter on Fred's wrist.   
  
"Angel and Cordelia. They like the blood and this time it's black. Black and there's...... something's broken. Something hard and it's not nice and I see her! She's got brown eyes and she's hard and she's screaming and she's a killer but not a killer....always killing but she hates to...she hates to....oh God she's gonna die..."  
  
At the mention of the two names, the three men hitched in their breaths, glancing around at each other as Fred babbled on, her head lolling around on her long neck, curling brown hair slowly matting with blood and sticking to her face in dark slashes.   
  
"Where at, Fred?" Gunn asked gently, wiping at her cheeks with his thumb. Fred turned toward Gunn and smiled at him wearily.  
  
"Why did you leave me?" She asked wistfully, her trembling fingers lifting to swipe along his own cheek. Gunn stiffened and leaned away from her touch.   
  
"Where at, Fred?" Lorne insisted, his face clouded at the exchange between the two of them. Fred turned her calf eyes back on Lorne and looked down at his hand her shoulders.  
  
"Ravina Boulevard...8...under the 8....." She whispered, her body giving out on her as the last bit of information fell from her red-stained mouth. Lorne supported her, the sleeve of his shirt pressed against her nose to soak up the blood that seemed to be endlessly streaming from her nose.   
  
"I've got the morphine...." Anne said, waddling into the room, her voice soft and lilting. She stooped before Fred, her back protesting and tears streaming down her pale cheeks as she looked over her friend's face. "Oh God...."  
  
Wesley took the syringe from Anne's trembling fingers and tapped it with one finger, then he jabbed it unceremoniously into the crook of Fred's arm. She whimpered and leaned against Lorne further, but didn't jerk away from the needle. When the dosage had been injected, Wesley pulled it out and handed it to Anne.   
  
Almost immediately, Fred relaxed, her mouth moving against Lorne's chest, nonsensical words spilling out into the air. But the thrashing ended as the medicine took effect and the blood slowly stopped it's never-ending trickle.   
  
"We should go. Take care of her Lorne." Wesley said stonily, standing and wincing as the stitches pulled once more. Gunn stood too and helped Anne up, his eyes roving down over the sprawled forms on the floor. A sudden pain went through his chest at the sight of Fred in Lorne's arms and he rememberrd a time long ago.   
  
His gaze guiltily swept back to Anne's face as she touched his arm, tears blurring her big blue eyes. A small smile and he wrapped her up in his arms, his heart touching hers for one moment before Wesley's business-like voice jabbed through his world.  
  
"Charles. We have to go."   
  
"Take care of them both, baby." Gunn said, kissing her forehead with a tender brush of his lips.  
  
"Be careful. I heard her out in the hallway...just...be careful." Anne said, her eyes full of Gunn's face for a moment before she let him go and hung her head.   
  
"I will baby. I will." Gunn said, walking away from his whole world and heading for the old one that still haunted him.  
  
(end chapter)  
  
******************** 


	4. Chapter Four

A/N: Things are heating up and thank you to everyone who has reviewed! :) I'm all about the feedback.   
  
Chapter Four:  
  
Setting---Under Ravina Boulevard, 9:35 p.m.  
  
"Hello Cordelia." Faith said as the demoness sprawled on the slick brick tiles before her. Then, before Angelus could recover from the surprise attack, she spun around and cracked him across the cheek with the heel of her boot.  
  
Angelus staggered backward a step and then smiled widely, his vampiric visage rippling and melting from his features as he looked her up and down.  
  
"Faith. Good to see you. When did you get out?" He said amiably, his eyes flicking back and forth between Cordelia and Faith. The demoness climbed to her feet, hand held to her cheek, eyes ablaze with anger.  
  
"Cut the shit, Angelus." Faith said, her eyebrow quirking as she lifted a crossbow in his direction. His smile got wider as he looked down the shaft of the wooden arrow. "You know why I'm here?"  
  
"To kill me, I imagine." Angelus said, eyes bored as he stared at her.   
  
"And her." Faith motioned to Cordelia with a flick of her head, her free hand suddenly producing a second crossbow and pointing it directly at the demoness before her.  
  
"Angelus...." Cordelia warned, her hazel eyes widening as the crossbow was leveled at her evenly.   
  
"Don't worry Cordy. She's not going to kill us."  
  
"Justine put you up to this?" Cordelia piped up, inching closer to the dark-haired Slayer, her lips pursed in thought.  
  
"Fuck Justine. This is my fight."  
  
"Oh really? You have some personal vendetta against the two of us?" Cordelia said, the corners of her crimson mouth curling up into a wicked grin.  
  
"Yeah. I don't like bitches. Now wipe that fucking smirk off your face, demon, or I'm gonna rip it off and feed it to him." Faith hissed, her finger squeezing down on the crossbow trigger and lifting the bow a little higher.   
  
"You wouldn't dare." Cordelia goaded her, the confident smirk taking over her face.  
  
"Oh no?" Faith said, her finger squeezing down on the crossbow trigger. The first arrow launched itself across the room, burying into Angelus's shoulder and dropping him onto the bricks. Before the dark-haired demon could move, she shot the second bow and watched as Cordelia stood stock-still and flashed another smile in her direction.  
  
For one moment the arrow continued it's journey through the damp air before it suddenly stopped, hovered in the air before it was suddenly caught in a brilliant flash of light emmitted from Cordelia's skin. The wooden shaft flew apart, splinters catching in Faith's skin and making her stumble backward.  
  
Blinded by the harsh glare, Faith didn't see Angelus as he leapt on her, his fist connecting solidly with her face and his teeth sinking into her skin.  
  
*********************  
  
Setting---Ravina Boulevard 9:25 p.m.  
  
"So, this is Ravina Boulevard, but where the hell are we supposed to go?" Gunn piped up from beside Wesley on the seat of the car. Wesley glanced over at his companion and sighed, his bespectacled eyes roving the wide avenue for a moment.  
  
"She mentioned numbers, didn't she? I'm sure she did..." He remarked, his mind searching back through the spattering of nonsense the Seer had babbled. It was getting harder and harder to understand what she was saying these days.  
  
"She's Fred. She's always mentioning numbers." Gunn reminded him, rubbing a strong brown hand over his chin.  
  
"Dammit. This is getting hard to do these days. If only Fred..."  
  
"Leave it be, bro. We can't change what's happening to her so don't even wish it." Gunn told him, interrupting his thoughts before he could linger too long in the "should be's".   
  
"Yeah." Wesley nodded and hopped out of the car, his sword jammed into his fist and his head heavy with useless thoughts. Gunn joined him as they walked quickly down the street.  
  
Suddenly, Wesley stopped dead in his tracks and stared up at the building before him. Gunn stopped beside him and peered up at the large yellow sign.   
  
"Under the eight...." Wesley muttered, his eyebrows furrowed as he stared up at the Super 8 motel sign.   
  
"Okay...so we have the place..now how do we get under it...." Gunn said, jogging forward and surveying the perimeter with sharp eyes...  
  
Wesley's brain went a mile a minute as he walked along behind Charles, his thoughts echoing with Fred's haunting voice. "6 plus 7 is 13.....13 minus 6 is 7......"  
  
He stopped dead in his tracks and stared at the room numbers on the open-faced motel facade. His eyes quickly spotted room number 13 on the second floor, the second from the end. His gaze trailed below to room number 7, on the very end of the row on the first floor. "Somewhere between...."  
  
"Wes?" Gunn called as the older man walked forward and stood in the spot between rooms 6 and 7, his gaze quickly going upward to room 13 above him.   
  
"It's here...help me find a way down...." Wesley said, his hands hitting the stucco side of the building and pressing firmly into the concrete below with his boots. Gunn followed suit and trailed his fingers over the wall. After a few minutes of searching desperately, his flat fingers suddenly found a tiny crease in the wall and he tugged as hard as he could.  
  
A door swung open and Wesley looked down into a dark crack in the building. It was pitch black and narrow and seemed to lead downward.  
  
"Uh....you first."   
  
Gunn snorted and motioned him forward. Wesley went, grumbling as he entered the tiny door and wondering what he'd find at the end of that long tunnel.  
  
He had a feeling he wouldn't like it.  
  
*********************  
  
Setting---Under Ravina Boulevard 9:40 pm  
  
Little red sparks of light danced across Faith's vision as Angelus sunk his teeth into her throat, tearing and ripping, sucking greedily.   
  
"Mother fucker..." She grunted, twisting in his grip, his jagged fangs tearing an even deeper wound in her throat. A fist followed her twist and Angelus was caught in the eye; he stumbled, sprawled against the curved sewer wall.   
  
Blood flowed freely down her neck, trickling between her breasts and turning her blue shirt a dark maroon. Fuck, this was bad. Blinking the pain away, she whirled, eyeing Cordelia, wondering why the demon wasn't attacking her yet.   
  
She had her arms crossed over her chest, lips curled appraisingly. "What?" Faith snapped, unsure of this new animal. The Queen C she knew was vastly different from the cruel, unaffected creature before her. There was something primal beneath the cool facade, beneath the smile that rubbed at all of Faith's edges, making her want to arch her back and hiss like a cat.  
  
What had happened to change her so much? Sure, Cordelia had always been a bitch...but this...  
  
"Just thinking about how much you've changed." Cordelia replied, the smile still superior, knowing.   
  
"Same goes for you. When did you lose your soul? The visions? Angel?" Faith spat, eyeing Angelus, who had leaned up from his sprawl against the wall, rubbing at his stubborn chin with a bloody hand. Black blood. Faith noticed it for the first time. Who had they killed and why?  
  
Swiveling back to Cordelia, she saw the demon visibly wince. Sore spot? She didn't have time to ponder the moment because it was gone in a second, the cool mask back in place. "What about you? When did you join the good fight? And here I thought you were a bad girl, Faith."  
  
"What do you know about me?"  
  
"More than you'd guess, Faith. I know about that darkness in you; the one you're trying to fight. I could help you with it....purge it out....or make it scream and you along with it." As she spoke Cordelia's eyes blazed white, her fingertips lighting slightly.   
  
Faith felt a tremble go through her. What did Cordelia mean? Make it scream? Could she do that?   
  
Faith didn't know, but the urge to touch the demon was growing and she fought against her rebelling muscles, fighting the steps that were bringing her closer and closer to the demon.   
  
From far away, she heard Angelus chuckle and she made no move to look at him, to guess his location and strike out. All she wanted was to accept whatever Cordelia had for her. Darkness or light...she didn't care. Either one was better than the war she was fighting within herself.   
  
Just as she reached out a hand to touch the light-shrouded fingertips before her, something large and heavy slammed into her, knocking her onto the floor.   
  
The wound on her neck ripped more, sending her spiraling away in a bruising agony of pain. As darkness crept up on her, she stared into a familiar pair of eyes and sank into the blue depths, welcoming the bliss they brought.  
  
(end chapter)  
  
***************** 


	5. Chapter Five

Chapter Five:  
  
Setting---Under Ravina Boulevard 9:40 pm  
  
The small doorway in the wall of the motel led down into a brick-lined sewer tunnel that was dark and musty smelling. Wesley stepped carefully, boots crunching over broken bones. The smell of decay was strong and he paused, bending and nudging a soft lump.  
  
"Dead rat." He commented to Gunn, who had stooped behind, him peering into the darkness at the object on the ground.   
  
"Yuck." Gunn commented, prodding Wesley in the back with his thumb. The Englishman stood and shifted his weapons in his hand before starting off again. They had walked a few steps when suddenly the sounds of voices were heard, distant, but echoing clearly off the rounded sewer walls.  
  
"Come on!" Wesley said, bursting into a run, Charles on his heels. About halfway there, he heard a familiar voice and nearly stopped in his tracks. She was here. Dammit. He slowed down and motioned for Gunn to do the same. Together they crept along the sewer tunnel to the brighter end before them.  
  
"What do you know about me?" Shivers ran up Wes's spine as he heard the deep challenge in Faith's voice and he spat in fury. No backup, in a blind tunnel against Cordelia and Angelus? What was she thinking? When he got a-hold of her he'd....what? He wasn't her Watcher anymore and hadn't been in a long, long time.   
  
"More than you'd guess, Faith. I know about that darkness in you; the one you're trying to fight."  
  
"Fuck. Cordelia." Gunn muttered in a rough whisper, eyes wide. Wesley shushed him with violent eyes and turned back to listening. His blood ran cold when he heard Cordelia continue.  
  
"I could help you with it....purge it out....or make it scream and you along with it."   
  
Light suddenly flooded the tunnel and the two men hiding in it's previously impregnable darkness hid their eyes from the brightness. Wesley knew what and whom was causing it and he cursed again, realizing the danger Faith was in.   
  
Blinded, he ran the short length of the tunnel and jumped into the lighted room at the end. He hit the first thing he found and realized it was Faith. Breath whooshed out of her lungs as they collided and he saw blood smeared across her neck. For one fleeting moment their eyes met and a small smile quirked the corners of her full lips.   
  
And then the light dimmed in her brown eyes and she passed out, slumped against the damp brick beneath him.   
  
"Jesus Wesley. I know you're desperate, but dry-humping an unconscious Faith? Now that is just sick." Wesley bristled at the sound of the voice and quickly rolled off Faith's fallen form. Her blood was thick on his hands and he grimaced as he looked down at her and the vicious wound on her neck. Pain laced across his heart and he balled his bloodied fists, his eyes turned right toward Angelus.  
  
"How long has it been, Angelus?"  
  
Angelus looked pensive for a moment, glittering yellow eyes flitting from side to side as he searched his memory. "A year. Gunn's wedding, I believe. That was a blast, let me tell you."  
  
"You would think that, wouldn't you?" Wesley spat, eyebrow arching and knuckles cracking under the force of his anger.   
  
"Hey, you should've invited us in the first place. By the way, how's Lorne's eye?" Angelus smiled toothily and sidled up next to Cordelia, who was scowling at Wesley, her arms crossed over her chest. Wesley knew that look and felt the hair on the back of his neck bristle.   
  
"Enough with the chit-chat." Wesley clipped, quite tired of the two of them. On cue, Gunn burst into the room, sword flashing and his eyes intense.   
  
Angelus whirled and caught the tall black man in the neck with the heel of his boot. Then he flipped around and caught Wesley on the backswing with his fist. Another kick sent Gunn toppling and a followup punch slammed Wes into the brick tiles. As Wesley reeled from the blow; he had to give the vampire credit. He was damned good. But Wesley had other things up his sleeve.  
  
"Flamis!" Wesley shouted through a mouthful of blood.   
  
Cordelia, who had taken a step toward Faith's unconscious form, was suddenly caught in a whirlwind of blue fire that licked at her face and left wet looking scorch marks on her skin. Her scream of rage was high-pitched and pain-filled.  
  
And then, the next second, her skin glowed, shining like a star and dissapating the mystical flames that surrounded her. The effort obviously cost her though, and her hazel eyes rolled up in her head.   
  
She collapsed next to Faith, dark hair scorched and blackened as it lay across her bright red skin.  
  
"You're going to pay for that, Pryce." Angelus growled low in his throat, leaping at the taller man, hands curled into claws. Wesley was slammed against the wall with a bone jarring force.   
  
"As I recall, Angel was always slinging that particular threat around too. He was as ineffectual as you are." Wesley said, voice full of gravel and glass. He was pushing it and he knew it. His eyes flicked to Gunn, who was climbing to his knees, neck already bruised a purple so dark it looked black.   
  
"Don't say that name." Angel growled again, spittle flecking his lips.   
  
"Hey, Angelus? Lose something?" Gunn called, picking Cordelia up by her hair and slapping her face with his palm. Angelus turned and saw what he had in his hands.  
  
"Put her down, motherfucker." Wesley was surprised to see fear in the golden eyes so close to his own. Angelus was afraid....for someone else? That was new.  
  
"Umm...no." Gunn smiled and turned the limp Cordelia in his arms and then slapped her full in the face hard enough to split her lip. "That's for ruining my wedding." He hit her again. "And that's for fucking up my family in the first place."   
  
"Put her down or I'll..."  
  
"Do what? Kill me?" Wesley interjected, his spider-like fingers gripping Angelus's strong forearms. Angelus turned back to him, growl rumbling in his throat, sharp teeth stained with blood. Wesley's eyes flashed as he realized whose blood it was.   
  
"How about you put Wesley down and then we can fight this out like men? Huh?" Gunn offered, gently slapping at Cordelia's face with an upbeat rhythm.   
  
"Fine." Angelus said, spinning Wesley in his grip and throwing him at Gunn. Wesley stumbled and bit down on his tongue as he hit the demon and his friend. Sprawled in a heap, he reached for Gunn's forgotten sword and brought it up in time to catch Angelus on the arm, feeling the point go to the bone. The vampire grunted and rolled, scooping up Cordelia's burned form and then leaping to his feet again.   
  
He opened his mouth to speak and suddenly a booted foot was brought up into his back, throwing him into the tunnel along with Cordelia. Wesley saw a small stake buried between the folds of Angelus's leather duster, too small to reach the heart, but large enough to cause him pain.  
  
"Get the fuck out of here Angelus." Faith snarled, her eyes clouded with pain, but on her feet. Wesley was impressed. Angelus looked from Gunn and Wesley to Faith and back again.   
  
"See you all real soon. We'll do lunch." And with a sneer, he was gone, disappearing into the darkness with Cordelia slung over his shoulder. Faith sighed in relief and sank down onto the bricks again.  
  
Gunn struggled to get up, but Wesley stopped him with a hand on his wrist. "No. Let them go."  
  
"Why?" Gunn snapped, pushing Wesley off his legs and standing, wincing as his throat throbbed in time to his heartbeat.   
  
"Because....I....just let them." Wesley said defeatedly, biting down on his lower lip. Gunn looked him full in the face and sighed.   
  
"You still think they can be saved, don't you?"   
  
"I don't know what I think, but for now I think we should just---"  
  
"Let them go so that they can kill innocent people, all because you think that everything can be put back together if you got Connor back? Fuck, Wes....it's a pipe dream and you know it. Give it up bro."   
  
"Charles..."  
  
"Don't Charles me. I'm tired of it. We should have done it long ago, back when we knew he'd lost his soul. Maybe then Cordelia wouldn't have done what she did!"   
  
"It's not Cordelia's fault. What happened, it was--"  
  
"Her fault. She's the one who---"  
  
"Jesus, keep it down, some of us are trying to bleed to death over here." A husky female voice cut through their arguement. Wesley started, suddenly remembered their damsel in distress who was anything but. He turned toward her and bent, holding out a hand to her. After a second of staring at it, she took it, her pale digits wrapping around his wrist and using him to help herself to her feet.   
  
"Faith...I....are you alright?" Wesley was unsure of what to say, and he felt a chill wrap around his spine as he looked at the deep bite marks on her neck. His fingertips gingerly touched the warm, abused tissue around the ripped wounds. Faith's gaze flickered to his as she felt his touch, eyes haunted and far away.  
  
"Five by five." But she didn't look it as she swayed, leaning against him with all her weight.   
  
"Charles?" Gunn stepped forward and looped one arm around her waist, supporting her weight on one side as Wesley did the same on the other side.  
  
Together, they walked out of the sewer.  
  
*********************  
  
Setting---The Hyperion Hotel, the next day  
  
It was quiet, which was a miracle, at least in Lorne's opinion. In his world, there was always noise and pain, blood and hypodermics, and a pair of brown eyes that were slowing driving him insane as she slipped into uncontrollable madness.   
  
His heart was heavy, his arms the same as he curled up around Fred's shivering form like he could protect her from the Powers with just his presence. He'd been by her side long enough to know that wasn't true, but he still liked to fool himself into thinking that he was strong enough for her.   
  
His one good eye roved around the room, reading little passages she scratched onto the walls.   
  
Can't listen, can't listen, can't listen and formulas were written in thick black marker and others were scratched into the paint by a pair of desperate hands. She thought sometimes that if she could just write it down, it wouldn't all be in her head.  
  
Lorne knew better.  
  
In times like this, he let his mind drift into the past, when sense, however nonlinear it was, had flooded her eyes. Back before the visions, before hell had rained down on them.   
  
~*~  
  
Setting---Fall 2002, the past  
  
"Cordelia! Stop! Please!" Lorne pleaded, reaching for the demoness's arm. Cordelia turned her head in his direction, skin aglow, short blonde hair falling in pale slashes against her cheek.   
  
"I have to try Lorne." Her voice was mechanical, her aura black. Lorne knew this was bad, very bad.   
  
"And if the Gatekeeper kills you, or worse?" He'd insisted as Fred and Gunn looked on, hugging each other tight in a way that made him almost jealous. They didn't know what to say to stop this, but they were counting on Lorne to know. Why him? He was just an aura-reader, not even part of the group, and yet the duty had fallen on his shoulders to stop the heart-broken Seer.  
  
"I don't care! I have to take the chance, Lorne. Death would be better than living without Angel. I can't do this anymore..." Cordelia's voice wavered as she gulped back unshed tears. The glow continued, filling the room with light.   
  
"There are other ways...we can get back his soul!" Lorne, red eyes intense as he tried and failed to reach out for her aura, to read it fully and see what she'd been keeping from him. Only now could he sense it. How had he missed something so jarringly obvious?  
  
"But Willow's dead....she's the one who knew how! Oh God...Buffy...they're all dead..."  
  
"But we're not. We can stop this...we just need to think of a plan. We don't need the Gatekeeper for this. It's practically suicide, pixie cat." Lorne plucked at the strings of her soul and found that horrified part of her that she'd locked away from all prying eyes, including his. And especially hers.   
  
"I deserve it. It's all my fault!"   
  
"Your fault?" Gunnn spoke up, disengaging himself from Fred's grip and stepping forward. His eyes burned into Cordelia's, unblinking despite the brightness she threw at him.   
  
"I...we...oh god...I didn't want to remember...." Cordelia turned to Lorne and he nodded. She knew he knew and she let the tears roll down her cheeks. "I tried so hard to forget..."   
  
"You slept with him and he lost his soul. That's how it happened, didn't it?" Fred's voice was soft and full of acceptance, as if she was finally letting herself believe it. She'd guessed it long ago. Gunn let a mad hiss of air.  
  
"It's all my fault. I killed Angel." Her lip trembled and a solitary tear trailed its way down her cheeks.  
  
"He's not dead sweetie. Not yet. But you will be if you do this. There's another way." Lorne said softly, once again reaching for Cordelia. She stepped away from his touch like his green skin was acidic.  
  
"Not for me there isn't." And with that she turned and raised her hands, shouting to the vast ceiling of the hotel the words to call the Gatekeeper.   
  
And then, time stood still. For how long, no one but Cordelia knew.  
  
When it resumed, Lorne blinked to see the Gatekeeper's terrible visage hovering before them all. Cordelia had her eyes closed and tears were streaming down her cheeks. She looked exhausted and the edges of her white shirt were blackened. What had she just done?  
  
"Mine." The Gatekeeper rumbled before any of them could move, one large, gnarled and diaphonous hand reaching out and burying itself in Cordelia's chest. The Seer screamed out, her head going back and her body spasming, lifting off the ground a foot before it was slammed back down. The Gatekeeper withdrew it's hand and Lorne saw something bright and glowing in his palm.   
  
His heart stopped in his chest as he realized what it was.   
  
"The price has been payed." The Gatekeeper's water-filled voice sounded and then he disappeared in a cloud of angry smoke.   
  
The remnants of Angel Investigations stood there for a moment, staring at Cordelia. Fred was the first to break the silence, running over to Cordy and falling to her knees. She cradled the Seer's blonde head in her lap and looked beseechingly up at Gunn and Lorne when her eyes refused to open.  
  
"What happened?"  
  
And then, it did happen, something horrible and haunting.   
  
Light filled the room, but it wasn't coming from Cordelia. No, this light defied a source, it was all-encompassing and absolute. And out of the depths of that white hell there came a tall, strong, armoured figure with kind red eyes and a grim smile.  
  
"Who...?" Someone said; Lorne wasn't sure who.  
  
"She's unworthy of her gift." The demon said, holding out his hand over Cordelia. Fred's eyes widened as she looked into the demon's eyes. "Damn. And I really liked her too."  
  
And suddenly, the world tilted and Fred was screaming, her mouth wide, Cordelia's eyes fluttering open and her mouth also opening. A blue orb passed her lips, stealing her breath and flying into Fred's mouth.   
  
The Texan kept screaming and screaming and screaming as Cordelia stared in horror....and then....nothing. Nothing but cool rage.   
  
"Fuck you Skip! I've done everything They asked of me! Fuck everything!" Cordelia growled, floating to her feet as if she were hooked to wires. And with that, she ran out of the hotel and didn't look back.  
  
Lorne's heart sunk. They'd taken it from her and now...now she was empty inside. Nothing but that rage against the world for taking the only things she'd ever loved.   
  
Her visions, her mission, her soul and her Angel  
  
~*~  
  
Setting---2005, the present  
  
Lorne tore himself out of the past and swiped at his eyes, realizing he was crying. Beside him, Fred stirred and he kissed her cheek gingerly. He often wondered, if things hadn't gone so wrong, where they'd all be. But Lorne wasn't a demon who dwelled and he sat up, tucking the blankets around Fred's thin shoulders.   
  
Walking downstairs, he spotted Anne in the lobby, her hand spread over her belly and a cellphone in her hands. She hung up just as he reached the bottom step.   
  
"What's the haps? Are they okay?" Anne looked visibly relieved as she answered, but there was a worried glint in her eyes.  
  
"They're fine. And they're bringing someone with them."   
  
(end chapter)  
  
****************** 


	6. Chapter Six

A/N:   
  
Chapter Six:  
  
Setting---The Hyperion Hotel, the next day  
  
Faith scowled at the insides of the hotel, remembering that it was only two days ago that she'd been told not to come back. Now here she was, not only being escorted in by two large bodyguards, but woozy with medicine she'd insisted she didn't need. Another day and she'd be completely healed, the blood loss having already been replaced by her Slayer's healing metabolism.   
  
Really, she shouldn't be there and she knew she could have gotten away any moment. It's not like Wesley or his friend could stop her. So why was she willingly walking back into this place?  
  
"Charles? Wesley?" An unfamiliar blonde head peaked out of Wesley's office and Faith scowled. Who was she? Then the pretty young woman stepped fully out of the room and Faith saw her round belly. Jesus, she looked like she was carrying twins in there.   
  
But whose twins, was the burning question in Faith's fragmented mind.   
  
Her internal query was answered immediately as Gunn, the tall black guy, left her side and rushed over to the pregnant woman, wrapping her up in a burly hug before devouring her lips.   
  
A silent sigh depressed Faith's lungs and she wondered why the relief. What had she been thinking? It didn't matter, she convinced herself, as she glanced at Wesley and saw him watching the two embracing, a smile on his lips, heavily shadowed eyes content for a moment. Then he felt Faith's eyes on him and he drew himself up, clearing his throat and looking away quickly.  
  
"Anne....I'd like you to meet Faith." Wesley said, upper lip stiff and breast poked out like he was someone important. Faith fought the urge to clock him and lifted a hand to her bandaged neck. The pregnant blonde, Anne, pulled away from Gunn and regarded her with a tight-lipped smile.   
  
"Hi. Welcome." Anne offered her, blue eyes kind.   
  
"Umm...yeah." Faith fidgeted and glanced around the lobby. Her eyes lighted on a green demon with one eye staring at her from his lean against the railing of the upstairs landing. A smirk was on his lips and blood was on his shirt. "Who's that?"  
  
"Lorne?" Wesley asked, looking up where Faith's gaze led. He gestured for the demon to come down and waited until he was in front of them until he spoke again. "Faith, Lorne. Lorne, Faith."  
  
Once again, Faith fidgeted, but not from unexpected hospitality, but from the strange feeling that the demon was doing something to her she couldn't quite explain. An odd sensation buzzed in her ear and something warm seemed to seep across her eyes, eyes that she narrowed in his direction before she *pushed* with everything in her.  
  
Lorne visibly swayed on his feet and then shook his shaggy head at her. A slow smile spread across his lime green face. "I like you. You don't take anyone's bullshit. Good."   
  
And that was all he said to her as he turned on his heel and trotted back up the stairs, leaving Faith wondering what had just happened. Wesley certainly didn't give her any hints as he crossed his arms over his chest and watched her, enigmatic orbs roving her face.   
  
"Umm...Charles, I think we'd better go....somewhere....." Anne said, searching Wesley's face and seeing his "we have to talk" look directed straight at the Slayer. Without a word, Charles followed her into the office, leaving Faith and Wesley staring at each other.   
  
Silence stretched, made a home for itself and then invited it's friends over.  
  
"So...." Faith finally said, meeting that unwavering blue gaze. "See you."  
  
"You're going?" Wesley said immediately, moving a quick step toward her, as if he wanted to block her exit.   
  
"I've got some things to take care of." She said shortly, tossing her dark brown locks out of her face. Wesley's eyes caught on the bandages and he bit his lower lip like he wanted to say something. "What? You've got "Protest Face"."  
  
"Do I? I wasn't aware that I could make such a face. "Disapproval Face" on the other hand..." An eyebrow arched at her and she thought he looked like a tiny bit younger for the slight smirk to his jaw. When had time beaten the shit out of him?  
  
"You disapprove of me leaving? After the other day when you told me to get the fuck out?" Faith said, her own eyebrow lifting in rebuttal.   
  
"Things have changed....I..."  
  
"What's changed, besides the fact that I owe you one? I'm still working with the Hunter's and you should still stay out of my way. And I'm still going to kill Angelus and Cordelia and I'm still not someone you should piss off."  
  
"But you're hurt, you have to rest."   
  
"I have a place to rest; I don't need your hospitality. Besides, I'm fine. I'm not some fragile flower that's gonna wilt if you forget to water it."  
  
"I am aware of this but..."  
  
"But what, Wesley?" Her eyes were sharp on his and he gulped.   
  
"But I thought that..."  
  
"That what, I would fail and come running back here asking you to be my Watcher again? That'd I become part of your team and we'd take down Angelus and Cordelia together? Fat fucking chance, Wes." Faith snapped, anger rising in her throat.   
  
"That's not what I meant and you know it, Faith." Wesley retorted, mouth grim, all humor gone.  
  
"Just for the tally books, what did you mean?"   
  
"I meant that....well...I..." He stammered and lost his ability to think, lost in the void that seemed to suck him up whenever she was around. Years had given him an edge, but damned if she coudn't grab ahold of his short and curlies and shake with all her might.   
  
"That's what I fucking thought. I'm out of here." Faith rolled her eyes and walked past him. Without thinking, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her in front of him. He stared at her, eyes searching hers a moment before speaking.  
  
"If you *ever* need anything, you know where to find me. Besides, you owe me one."   
  
Faith stared him down and gently pulled her wrist from his grasp. A solemn nod seemed foreign on her, but she did just that as she turned away, the door slamming shut behind her.   
  
*****  
  
Wesley watched her go, his heart beating against his ribcage like a drum machine. What had he meant? Why did he want her to stay? A million and one questions and every one too wrapped up in layers to unpeel.   
  
With a sigh, he jammed his fists into his jeans pockets, a habit he employed when his mind was weighed down heavily by thought. He did so now, fingering the piece of paper in his pocket that had her perscription on it. He'd taken it from the man at the pharmacy and stuffed it into his pocket, for reasons unknown.   
  
Now he pulled it out and looked at the address typed on it, a small smile of comfort gracing his lips. At least he knew where to find her now, and that was small comfort for a man who felt like his whole world had been flipped upside down and shoved down his throat.   
  
Suddenly, Wesley felt a presence at his back and he squared his shoulders. "What did you read before she booted your ass out?"  
  
"She's conflicted, hurting over the loss of someone she thought of as her only friend, a little lost, but finding purpose." Lorne answered immediately, sitting down on the steps and taking a deep drag off the cigarette in his fist.   
  
"What else?" Wesley asked, sitting down next to the anagogic demon and staring at him with intense eyes.  
  
Lorne stared at him, opening his mouth for a moment before clamping it shut. "Nothing much else, really. I didn't really have time to read her well."   
  
"She's hurting." Wesley said, more a comment than question. Lorne shook his head and took another drag off his cigarette. "Damn them."  
  
"You want to help her, don't you?"  
  
"I'm not sure what I want to do. I know she's a big girl, but what happened last night proves to me that Justine can't look past her own ass to see to her protection. What she did was suicide and if I, uh, we hadn't come along she'd have been dead. Or worse."   
  
"So you want to what? Take her in?"  
  
"Charity? No, I don't think that would work with her. She feels she's got a mission now and I know how important those are. When you've lost it, you cling to it with tooth and nail once you find it again." Wesley's eyes clouded and he closed them, suddenly feeling very weary.  
  
Lorne eyed him and noted the haggard appearance and white streaks in his hair. "Yes, sometimes you'd do anything for a mission, including slowly killing yourself for the sake of the greater good. And sometimes, it's not even worth it."  
  
Wesley's blue eyes suddenly glared at him. "This isn't about me. I do what I have to do."  
  
"I'm not judging you for going that that shaman, but have you really thought about the consequences? You don't even know if Connor is still alive, let alone if this will even open the Quor-toth. You might be--"  
  
"That doesn't matter, Krevlorneswath, I do what I have to and no matter what, I'll make it right."  
  
"I'm not sure you can, Wesley."   
  
"I guess I'll find that out for myself. Until then, why don't we focus on Faith, and not me?"   
  
"Hard to do." Off his look, Lorne went on. "There's big things in the future for both of you."  
  
"I thought you didn't read her well?" Wesley's eyes narrowed and he glared at him.  
  
"Well, maybe a little more than I thought...she's, uh, conflicted."  
  
"You said that."  
  
"Not to mention she's got a huge chip on her shoulder and a fire-breathing bitch from Hell breathing down her neck, just waiting for her to screw up. Makes for some violital thoughts. " Lorne said, patting Wesley's knee and blowing out a lungful of blue-gray smoke.   
  
Wesley wrinkled his nose at the smell and then spoke in a low growl, every nerve in his body twanging as his mind flashed a bruised face and a knife blade at him.   
  
"I really hate that bitch." He spat and cracked his knuckles. Lorne nodded and took another deep drag.   
  
"Who doesn't?"  
  
**************  
  
Setting---Angelus and Cordelia's Mansion.....or what's left of it the next day  
  
"I really hate that bitch." Cordelia muttered, kicking at a charred piece of wood, glass crunching under her expensive heels.   
  
Before her the mansion she'd come to adore over the past two years closely resembled the Wreck of the Hesperus. Scattered about among the ashes was a fallen body or two, evidence of the demon henchmen that hadn't burned or gone 'poof' under the blades of the Hunters.   
  
An acrid puff of smoke drifted lazily in Angelus's direction as he sank down on the remains of their once expensive couch. Now it was a charred parody of luxury and it creaked under his weight. Overhead the sun was up, but the second floor was still teetering precariously, groaning as the Santa Anna winds cupped it, threatening to topple it over at a moments notice. Angelus looked around at the shadowed recesses of thier once posh mansion.   
  
The firefighters had long since been dispatched, laying in pools of their own blood on the lawn. Angelus really hated dealing with the human puplic.  
  
"Justine did a good job though, I'll give her that." Cordelia shot him a dark look and sunk down next to him, her skin raw and blistered from Wesley's magickal attack. Angelus winced as his rapidly healing shoulder and back wounds stretched.  
  
"So what now?"   
  
"Now, you relax and after dark we'll find something pretty and nubile to kill. Then we'll take her house and everything will be right as rain." Angelus traced the curve of her neck with the softness of his lips.   
  
"Right as rain.....how can rain be right......?" Cordelia's eyes went dark again and her voice trailed off to places Angelus couldn't quite grasp. It was like that with her sometimes. Cold and dangerous one moment and distant and longing the next. She had a strange duality about her that had him quite mystified, but then again, she'd always been that way, even before her transformation.   
  
"What's that baby?" He asked, unsure of what to say or do in times like these. Emotions weren't something he handled well and the fact that she still had them despite her apparant lack of a soul unnerved him. The only thing he'd ever admitted to himself was the fact that without her, the sky was always bright and the night was empty, though for the life of him he couldn't figure out why. He loved her, though he was loathe to admit it.  
  
"Nothing." Cordelia snapped, mask fitting down neatly over her face in a comforting way. He could handle this incarnation; he knew her, hell they were practically a two-headed beast in this mode. "And after we set up housekeeping?"  
  
"We....wait a minute!" Angelus jumped up from the burned couch and ran over to the charred husk of the desk. He wrenched the drawers out and threw burned, crackled papers everywhere. "Where is it?"  
  
"What?" Cordelia asked, her heart thumping her throat as she watched him.  
  
"The papers! The ones we stole from Wolfram & Hart!" He threw another stack of papers down into the ash.  
  
"Fuck....fuck...if Justine found them..." Cordelia bit her lip, a million and one scenarios flooding her mind.  
  
"Not if." Cordy looked up to see Angelus holding the folder they'd stashed the prophecy in. Empty.  
  
"Oh fuck. They know."  
  
"Which means we're going to have to pay them a little visit." Angelus's smile turned jagged and Cordelia let herself smile along with him. It was so fun being evil.  
  
  
***************  
  
Setting--A Warehouse on Crenshaw, same day  
  
"You're alive." It wasn't a question, more like a surprised statement. Faith scowled and crossed her arms over her chest, eyes burning as she fought the urge to hit the red-haired warleader before her. "Them?"  
  
"Unchanged, although they now know that I'm after them." Faith admitted honestly, waiting for the ax to fall and Justine's anger to charge straight at her.   
  
"Oh really? Why am I not shocked?" Justine merely commented, not nearly biting enough for what passed as normal between them.  
  
"That's it? No "you're useless, why did I sign you on" rant?" Faith asked, eyebrows knitting together.  
  
"Why would I say that? You tried a full on frontal assualt, but that didn't work. We're up for different tactics now. Guerilla type shit." Justine said, taking a deep drink from a flask she drew from her pocket.   
  
As she watched her, Faith had the nagging feeling that this was all too pat, all too forgiving and she narrowed her eyes.   
  
"What? I'm being honest with you here! Besides, even a Slayer needs help sometimes." Justine said, a smile spreading over her features as she walked away from Faith. "I'll come up with some plans with Tor and we'll discuss them at the meeting tomorrow night. Until then, relax and heal. We're going to need you at full strength as soon as possible."   
  
And with that, she disappeared out into the main floor of the warehouse, leaving Faith alone, staring after her, mouth open slightly and wishing for all the world that she knew what had just happened.  
  
*****  
  
Justine spat into the inch-thick dust across the floor of the warehouse, a demonic smile spreading slowly across her features. Tor saw her from his perch on a battered armchair, his brown eyes finding hers. A few years of fighting together had created a body language between the two of them and all she had to do was nod.   
  
He knew now. They didn't need the Slayer. Not from what they'd found in the mansion.   
  
Faith was expendable.  
  
(end chapter)  
  
******************** 


	7. Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven:  
  
Setting---Wolfram & Hart, the next day  
  
"So, the world's going to end." Leonard Morris said, brown eyes searching the long wooden table where the other lawyers of Special Projects resided. Being the head of the division for over two years, he was known for being a hardass, and reveled in it. Nothing got by him and Lilah had a feeling nothing ever would.   
  
For the first time, she actually respected her boss. He was a lot different than Linwood Morrow, who was now resting somewhere in a shallow grave. Lilah wasn't too sure of the details of his dispatchment, but she had a feeling it had something to do with the whole Angel-lost-his-soul incident. Hell, she didn't care. At least he'd taken that weasle Gavin Park with him.   
  
"Well? What are we going to do about it?" Leonard's eyebrow arched and he pursed his thick lips, dark brown skin glistening in the florescent lights overhead. He pointedly looked over at Lilah.   
  
"We have a team of experts---"  
  
"Not good enough." Leonard cut her off, slamming his hand down on the wooden table with a bang. "And you, young lady, have a lot of explaining to do."  
  
Lilah knew immediately what he meant. "Angelus and Cordelia came to see me. They found out about the prophecy and are hoping to bring it to fruition. I told them I couldn't help them and they...threatened me. So I told them I would help them any way I could. You do know I was lying, don't you?"  
  
"Of course, Miss Morgan! Why would you go about disobeying company policy? What I'm most interested in, is why you didn't report them immediately?"  
  
"I was waiting to see what their next move was, sir." She smiled tight-lipped and toyed with the twist top of her fountain pen.   
  
"That's disappointing Miss Morgan." Emerson Rauly spoke up, his fat jowls moving as he spoke. Lilah sighed and nodded her head.  
  
"Yes sir. But I have a feeling things have just gotten complicated." Lilah changed the subject, bringing out her folder and passing around thick pamphlets to everyone seated. Silence followed as everyone flipped through the information presented in the documents.   
  
Morris threw down his packet. "So?"   
  
"So, sir? Their home has been destroyed by Justine and the Hunters. They're going to be concerned with revenge for a little while and we can get the jump on them."   
  
"Jump on what?"   
  
"Stopping the prophecy, sir!" Lilah nearly trembled under Morris's intense glare.   
  
"I thought we were already working on that?" Morris said, cool and calculating. Damn him, he had a way of demeaning everything she said and making her feel like an ineffectual idiot. She took a calming breath.   
  
"We are sir, but we need more time to find out the where and who. The Nyazian Scrolls only say that, and I quote, "The world shall end." That's it. There are other passages that have to be considered, but it makes no sense and we have the best transcribers on the planet working on it."   
  
"Not the best." Rauly spoke up, leaning forward and clasping his hands on the table. Lilah stared at him questioningly and then he went on. "Wyndham-Pryce."  
  
Lilah opened her mouth to protest and then slammed it shut once more.   
  
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't he tell Miss Morgan to um, take this job and shove it?" Mac said and Lilah shot her an evil glare.   
  
"That's not all he did, from what I--" Someone muttered; Lilah didn't catch who.  
  
"I don't care about what he said," Morris interrupted, waving his hands and then staring at each of them. "I want Wyndham-Pryce on this, yesterday."  
  
"He won't do it, sir. You know that." Lilah protested, thinking of the last time she'd seen the leader of Connor Investigations. They hadn't parted on good terms, which was nothing new.  
  
"Oh, I think he'll come around once he learns what the prophecy states. Afterall, we're on the same side, for once." Morris said, standing and glaring at Lilah. "And if that doesn't get him, tell him that his old friends are hell-bent on making it all come true."  
  
And with that, Leonard Morris walked out of the meeting room, leaving Lilah glaring after him. She had give him credit; he was good.  
  
***********  
  
Setting---The Hyperion Hotel, same day  
  
"What in bloody hell does she want?" Wesley growled, not looking up from his mound of paperwork.   
  
"Dunno, but she insists on seeing you, bro." Gunn informed him, standing with his arms crossed over the his chest, the light from the lobby blocked by the bulk of his body.  
  
"Tell her to naff off." Wesley shot him a grim smile and then looked back down at his hands, spread across an invoice.   
  
"Fuck you." Lilah's voice dared to breach the sanctity of his office and Wesley's head snapped up once more. Blue eyes narrowed in her direction as she pushed her way past Gunn. Charles avoided her touch like acid and watched as Wesley nodded him out.   
  
The door closed behind them and Wesley stared impassively at Lilah Morgan. She took a seat without him inviting her, long, elegant legs crossed, a leather briefcase in her hands.   
  
"Been a long time, Wesley."   
  
"Not nearly long enough, Lilah. Why are you here? Another job offer?" Wesley said, tangling his fingers and twirling his thumbs boredly.   
  
"Strangely enough, yes." She answered, arching her eyebrow at him and smiling in that mysterious way that grated at every nerve in his body.  
  
"Not interested. Leave." He said automatically, leaning back in his chair.   
  
"Not that kind of offer, prick." Lilah snapped, opening her briefcase. "It concerns a prophecy."   
  
He just stared at her.  
  
"You remember the Nyazian scrolls?" At his solemn nod, she continued. "Well there's a passage my company is having trouble with. We thought you'd like to give it a shot. Use that big brain of yours for something worthwhile instead of rotting here in your hotel, acting like you're saving the world."   
  
"Not interested." He said once more, ignoring the jab.  
  
"Not even if the scrolls the say the the world is going to end?" Lilah said, smiling as she saw him flinch.   
  
"Do they?" His face was impassive, but he couldn't keep the intrigue out of his voice.   
  
"Indeed, and there's someone you know that's made this prophecy coming true their top priority."  
  
"Angelus and Cordelia, I presume."  
  
"You always were a good guesser, Wes."  
  
"If this is some lie to try and lure me in...." His voice trailed off and he glared at her.  
  
"Would I lie to you?" Again, he stared at her and she smiled. "Okay, would I go out of my way, risk being killed for just showing my face, to lie to you?"  
  
"I wouldn't put it past you, Lilah."   
  
"You're right. But I've been known to do things that I shouldn't." Lilah looked him up and down pointedly; he shifted uncomfortably and glared at her. He resisted a shudder, remembering all too well those months spent burying his pain in her.   
  
"Don't we all?"   
  
"So, enough with the memory lane barbs, are you going to help or not? We are on the same side this time, you know." Lilah shook herself and threw a big stack of papers down in front of him.   
  
"I very much doubt that." Wesley murmered as he scanned the documents before him. "So, you need me to translate the scrolls for you, so you can stop the world from ending and therefore continue in your never-ending quest to drive Angelus over the edge so that he can bring about the end of the world?"  
  
"Something like that." Lilah flashed a smile at him. "Our company policy specifically forbids all premature end-of-world events and this one falls under that category. Therefore, we stop it."  
  
"You know what I don't get?" Wesley ran a dogged hand through his thick hair. "Why hasn't your other prophecy come true, yet? Angelus is obviously evil, so why doesn't he do what he's supposed to?"  
  
Lilah shifted uncomfortably in her seat. As she recrossed her legs, he caught a glimpse of her bright red panties and shuddered.   
  
"Something go wrong with your plans, Lilah?" Wesley smiled crookedly at her, ignoring the sick feeling in his stomach.  
  
"Wouldn't you like to know?" She shot back defensively.   
  
"Indeed I would, but I don't think we have the time."   
  
"So you'll help?" She sounded hopeful and relieved.  
  
"I will. And I expect my company to be payed accordingly." Wesley thumbed through the documents again.  
  
"Of course." Lilah said, pulling out other documents and placing them on his desk. Among them, Wesley spotted the Nyazian scrolls and flinched. "You know I think this could be the start of--"  
  
"Of nothing. Leave now. I'll contact you when I know something." Wesley didn't look at her and kept reading as she watched him. On a sigh, Lilah stood and walked out. Wesley watched her go out of the corner of his eyes.   
  
What was it with him and evil women?   
  
**************  
  
Setting---A warehouse in Compton, 11:00 pm, that night  
  
"We've talked it over and we think that you should lead a surprise attack on Angelus and Cordelia, somewhere where they'd least expect it." Justine said, standing in front of her assembled recruits.   
  
"I thought I'd already done that." Faith said, playing with a small dagger and eyeing the warleader in front her. The hair on the back of her neck rose. Something about the whole day had been off and this was the icing.   
  
"True, but you'll have backup this time." Tor spoke up, his muscles rippling as he stood.   
  
"I don't play well with others." Faith said, cleaning the dirt out from under her fingernails with the tip of the blade.   
  
"You work for me, you do." Justine's voice was harsh on her ears and Faith glared up at her from under the cover of her hair.   
  
"Maybe I'm tired of working for you?" Faith challenged her, anger too much for her to contain. She was never good at tolerating authority figures and she was amazed she'd taken Justine's shit for as long as she had.   
  
"Why all the hostility, Faith? We're trying to help you here. We all want the same thing." Tor said, much more patient than his leader. Faith almost liked him, despite the cold look in his eyes that reminded her of some of the inmates she'd met in prison. Like there was a lot more going on behind his eyes than he was letting on; like he was planning something.   
  
"I'm not sure we do, Tor." Justine said, stepping up and staring Faith down. The Slayer had to give her credit; the woman had a nice set of rocks. Faith stood and stared her down, a full two inches taller than her.   
  
"What's that supposed to mean?" She challenged the redhead, eyes flashing.  
  
"Awful chummy with Wyndham-Pryce aren't you?"   
  
"Leave Wesley out of this." Faith growled quickly, dagger flashing in the dim lights.   
  
"I'm just saying, you don't seem so driven now that Prince Charming has saved you from Angelus. I mean, he played nursemaid and everything." She gestured to Faith's bandaged neck. Faith's hand rose of it's accord and she flinched.  
  
"Fuck you. It's not like that." For once, she didn't seem to have a decent comeback. In fact, she was getting red in the face. From anger or something else, she was hard-pressed to answer.   
  
"Right, so what's the problem here?" Marie spoke up, bright pink hair nearly glowing in the dim lights. Faith turned a face full of distaste in her direction. "You gonna do your job or what?"   
  
"Yeah? She gonna do her job?"   
  
The voice was foriegn to nearly everyone in the room. At least two people stopped, blood running cold. Faith turned and looked straight at the intruder, blood smeared across his lips and one of the recruits in his arms, dead eyes staring. The body fell out of the cold, pale hands and smacked wetly on the ground.  
  
"What? You're not going to welcome me, Justine?" Angelus said, smiling widely before leaping across the floor, straight at the two women.   
  
(end chapter)  
  
************************ 


	8. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight:  
  
Setting---A warehouse in Compton 11:10 pm  
  
Shouts rang out, echoed off the vast walls of the warehouse. Bodies scattered, some running for weapons, others thrown out of the way as the vampire plowed his way through them.   
  
Faith spun her leg out and caught Angelus in the jaw as he reached her. He reeled under the blow and then smiled, catching her with a lightening quick blow to her face with his fist.   
  
Not to be outdone, Justine moved up beside Faith and struck at Angelus with her fists, battering at his face before he batted her away. She slid across the floor, bleeding from the nose and mouth.   
  
Faith smirked at that and then dived back at Angelus, the tiny knife in her hands burying itself to the hilt in his flesh, right over his heart. Had it been a stake, he'd have been dust. As it was, he just pulled it out with a grimace and flung it across the room.   
  
Faith winced as she saw the blade catch pink-haired Marie in the throat, dropping her to the dusty floor, sputum and blood drippling out of her mouth, a bright red fountain spreading beneath her.   
  
Angelus didn't stop to admire his work though, as he whirled and caught Faith in the breasts with the heel of one boot. Faith grunted under the blow and then flipped backward, hands meeting the floor and the toes of her steel-toed boots slamming into Angelus's nose. She heard the crunch of bone and felt the spray of borrowed blood hit her arms and face.   
  
She landed on her feet and lashed back with her leg, dropping Angelus onto the ground. He rolled before she could spin and drop down onto him. Back on his feet within seconds, he dived in with his fists, pummelling her face with blow after blow. She felt her nose give and knew it was broken, but didn't have the luxury to think about it. A swift uppercut to his jaw knocked him backward and she spun for more momentum.   
  
Instead of meeting the waiting chest of a stunned Angelus, she connected with Justine's back. The older woman grunted under the blow and Faith felt something crunch under her boot.   
  
Everything slowed.   
  
Justine's eyes clouded with pain and then closed, opened once more to stare at Faith as she half turned in place, mouth open in surprise. She hit her knees and her body shuddered. Then, she slumped, unmoving and still, on the floor.   
  
Faith just stared, brown eyes horrified. What had she done?  
  
"Wow, I know old habits die hard, but this..." Angelus nodded his head appreciatively at her. Faith felt bile rising in her throat.   
  
Her vision blurred, the sounds of the other Hunter's voices roaring in her ears. Her mind narrowed on the blank eyes of the woman before her and the ghost of the feel of her spine crunching under foot.   
  
And then, without thinking, she turned and fled.   
  
She heard Angelus calling behind her, laughing, taunting or challenging her, she wasn't sure and didn't care. She slipped once, falling down on her hands and knees and staring for one moment at Marie's dead eyes. Blood was everywhere, all over her.  
  
Faith knew she was screaming as she stood up and ran onward, the night opening up before her as she pushed past the startled recruits near the doors of the warehouse. She hit the street and ran and ran, all the way across the city and past freeways, shops and staring people.  
  
She didn't know where she was going until she pulled to a stop before the Hyperion, chest heaving so hard she couldn't draw breath without a stabbing pain so steep she was blinded. She limped up the walkway without thinking and burst into the lobby, collapsing in a heap as soon as she reached its inner safety.   
  
She passed out with a pair of strange brown eyes staring into hers, a drawling voice in her ears and gentle hands on her face.  
  
*****************  
  
Setting---The Hyperion Hotel, 11:30 pm  
  
Fred stared at the walls, hands smudged with thick stripes of black marker, stringy brown hair draped over her eyes. She poked her tongue out of her mouth and peered at the dark scrawl on the walls.   
  
"A place without walls is a paradise." She read outloud, drawling voice weary but happy. Happy because the voices had stopped and she wasn't kaplooey today. So much so that Lorne had removed the lock from the door. She could go downstairs if she wanted to.   
  
Still, the freedom to traverse the many halls and floors of the hotel did little to comfort her. She knew that there were things out there, bad things beyond the scribbled door to her room that wanted to hurt her. They could hurt her, she knew. She felt it everytime her head opened up and an army marched through.   
  
"An army with boots made of rattlesnake teeth." Fred said, writing that below the last line she'd written. "It's all about teeth, sometimes. Everyone needs teeth. Everyone but birds but that's just their nature. And we shouldn't deny anyone their nature. It's unnatural. I wonder if birds like tacos?"   
  
She stopped, realizing there was no one there to listen and besides, she had a feeling she was rambling. But she liked to ramble, it filled the silent spaces and made the world seem cozy and close.   
  
"Honey? What are you doing?" Anne's voice was soft, gentle on her ears. Fred flinched and dropped the magic marker onto the floor.   
  
"Oh, nothing. I'm fine. How is your stomach." She giggled and corrected herself with a smile. "I mean your baby?"   
  
"Fine. Restless." Anne answered, crossing the room and crouched down heavily next to her. She read the newest passage on the walls and shook her head. "You have a way with words, Fred."  
  
"What's it like to be pregnant?" Fred's eyes sparkled and Anne couldn't help but smile for the sanity in the dark brown orbs. Days like these were rare and fleeting and she was learning to cherish them.   
  
"It's interesting. Kind of special, like I'm doing something no one has ever done before, even though I know women have been doing it since, well, since women have been doing it." Anne laughed and patted her stomach happily. Fred lifted a markered hand and rubbed over the equator of her skin, mouth opening with surprise as she felt a strong kick under the skin.   
  
"He's going to be just like Charles." Her voice was wistful and far away for one moment. Anne felt uncomfortable suddenly. She knew about Fred and Gunn's past and didn't begrudge them the bond they still had between them, but sometimes she wished things were different.   
  
Her mind flashed back to the days when she was part of Justine's band of vampire killers, joining the ranks because she couldn't go on watching her kids become part of the undead of the city. It was no longer enough for her to watch and keep the home fires burning when so many innocent children failed to come in off the streets night after night. Once there, she'd been surprised to see a familiar face. Charles Gunn was quieter than he had been before, edgier and not prone to trust anyone, including her. Slowly though, she'd gotten the story out of him.   
  
Of Angel and Cordelia. Of Wesley's betrayal and Connor. And especially Fred. It was the pain of slowly losing Fred that had driven him to joining up with Justine. And it was the very thing that had driven her away. She'd gotten the story one night on the rooftop of the Hunter's warehouse and had cried with him and the pain he'd felt. When things had gone to hell at Angel Investigations, Charles had tried to keep the agency open, but Fred had spiraled into madness far quicker than he'd been prepared for. He'd felt he was ineffectual and had joined with Justine in order to find the mission he so desperately needed.  
  
The only problem was, he hadn't told Fred where he was going every night. And finally, Fred had a vision that had sent everything crashing down. She found out about his betrayal with the one person she hated indefinately. Fred was a forgiving soul, but that was too much for her to handle. The classic big blowout had been unrepairable and they'd parted on bad terms.   
  
Immediately, Gunn had felt bad, but he refused to crawl back to her. He felt that he was right and that Justine's fight was the good fight. Anne hadn't been so sure; right from the start she'd been uneasy with Justine and her ways. Charles too, though he was loathe to admit it. It took nearly a year for them both to see the light. That and a mysterious rescue by Wesley and Lorne that had resulted in a new mission being presented to them. Walls had been mended, revelations had been layed bare and Anne had been along for the ride and wrapped up in a secure blanket of belonging she'd never felt in all her years of searching. And in that time, something had happened between her and Charles. It wasn't anything that either had been looking for, but it happened and it was strong.   
  
And, despite Anne's initial fear and jealous feelings, Gunn hadn't tried to rekindle his relationship with Fred once he was back on friendly terms with her. Despite lingering feelings, Anne knew that Charles loved her and had proven it when he'd asked her to marry him, in front of every member of the the newly renamed Connor Investigations team. Still, she wondered what they really felt and if they both longed for the past.  
  
"Probably, from the way he kicks. Or her." Anne said, forcing herself out of her thoughts of the past. Fred smiled and tilted her head, appraising Anne's face and body. Then she turned to the wall and picked up the magic marker, drawing a stick figure with a smile and big round belly. Anne laughed. "Cute."  
  
"Isn't she, though? How's my kitten?" Lorne strolled into the room, smiling wide enough to break his face. Anne returned the expression and was pleased to see the green demon so happy. Apparantly, Fred's good days were Lorne's good days too.   
  
"Meow." Fred answered, turning her pixie face up for a quick, friendly kiss from Lorne. Anne marvelled at the ease with which they spoke to one another. Then again, she wasn't surprised. Lorne had been the only one to stay in the hotel with her after Gunn had left. They were best friends and Lorne was her unofficial keeper, being the only person she'd listen to while in the grip of a vision.  
  
And Anne had her suspicions that the feelings Lorne had for Fred were anything but friendly. She saw the longing look in his eyes as he settled down next to the Seer and took her hands in his, reading the new passages on the walls with an expression that spoke volumns to anyone who knew him.   
  
Anne wondered if Fred had a clue. Probably not.  
  
"An army with boots made of rattlesnake teeth? Very eloquent, kitten." Lorne commented, not dropping her hand.   
  
"Thank you...I....I..." Fred's voice trailed off suddenly and she stuttered, eyes focusing and refocusing.   
  
"Fred?" Lorne knew that look and felt fear threading it's way his spine. He grabbed for her just as the vision hit.   
  
Her body spasmed, her back arched and she strangled a scream, fingers made into claws as she scraped at the air, looking for a handhold and finding molten pain. Lorne tucked himself around her and held on tight, eyes squeezed shut and fingers bruising as he tried to hold onto the flailing girl.   
  
Anne moved out of the way of a bare, deadly foot, eyes wide. "Charles! Wesley!"   
  
"She's not broken! She's not broken! Don't run! Don't run! You're all bloody! Oh God, he's all dim!" Fred screamed out her vision; Anne mentally filed it away. They'd deal with it after they dealt with her.   
  
Almost immediately, Charles showed at the door, hypodermic in his hands and a worried, haggard expression on his face.   
  
"Where's Wesley?" Anne asked, backing up against the wall and trying to ignore the flailing couple on the floor before her.  
  
"I don't know." Came Charles's terse answer as he tapped the needle to get rid of the bubbles. Then, with gritted teeth, he fell to his knees, reaching for Fred's thin arm.  
  
"NO! It's not right! You're not a killer!" Fred screamed to someone only she could see. Then, before Charles could blink, she kicked him in the face and rolled out of Lorne's grip.   
  
She tore off through the open door, past a stunned Anne and down into the hallway. Lorne was up in a moment, running after her; Charles a second later, lip split from where she had kicked him.  
  
Anne followed them as fast as she could, taking the stairs slowly. As she reached the bottom, she stopped, eyes widening at the sight before her.  
  
"It's okay, you're not dead. Not a killer. He's all dim and he's waiting for you. Please, you gotta wake up..." Fred cooed to the fallen girl on the lobby steps.   
  
Anne recognized her immediately.   
  
Faith stirred and then was still, Fred still hovering over her, whispering soft words that only made sense to herself.   
  
Anne's eyes widened. The Slayer was covered in blood.  
  
"Where the hell is Wesley?" Lorne asked, holding onto Fred's hands as she tried to wipe the blood off of Faith's pale face.   
  
They all looked around at each other. No one knew.  
  
****************  
  
Setting---401 W. Blaine Street, Apt. 3b, Torrance, 10:00 pm.  
  
"DO IT!"   
  
"Too soon...I musn't..." A thick, Spanish accented voice trailed off, thick gray eyebrows drawn up in concern.   
  
"I'll pay you double. Do it."   
  
"I..."   
  
"DO IT!"   
  
Julio stared at the desperate man before him, hands twitching. He'd changed considerably since the first time he'd walked into his little apartment asking for his help. Help wasn't exactly what he'd found and the evidence was obvious in the haggard appearance and dulled eyes.   
  
The sessions had started nearly a year and a half ago, monthly at first. Within the past three months, he'd been coming to him bi-monthly, despite Julio's warnings that it wasn't good for him. Obviously, that didn't matter to the man before him, nor did the fact that he had just bumped the sessions from bi-monthly to bi-weekly.   
  
"You're not strong enough yet. Please, let more time pass and then I will--"  
  
"Triple. Do it now."   
  
Julio gave up. Afterall, what was it his concern what this man was going to do with all that stored energy? It was his life to gamble with and none of Julio's business. Still, it wasn't right and he knew it.   
  
"Fine. Sit. Relax your mind." Julio sighed heavily, sitting down in front of him. It didn't take long for him to sense the calmness of the other man's mind. Working with him for so long had given him a good feel of his state of mind and he quickly did what he was being paid for.  
  
Closing his beady brown eyes, he Saw what the other man wanted him to take. Thick, roiling white energy flowed out from beneath the younger man's skin, centering in his heart and spiking out beyond. It was weaker than last week; understandably; he'd taken all the stored energy last time and his body had yet to replenish itself. With a sigh, Julio Reached and wrapped a mental whisp around a spikey strand of energy, pulling it with all his might. It unravelled slowly, like thread off a spool; the center slowly dimming in brightness as it was emptied.   
  
Almost to the end of the thread, Julio stopped. A glowing, pulsing nebula still sparkled from the heart of the man before him, but it was small and wavering. He couldn't take any more or he'd be committing murder. Slowly, he disengaged himself from the man's energy web and turned his attention to the focus-stone sitting between them.   
  
A year and a half had taken the gleaming stone of obsidian and filled it's vast chasm with energy, stored and preserved for the day when it would be needed. He'd chosen obsidian for it's special properties, including the huge energy chamber that was meant for the kind of spell his client needed it for.  
  
Now, with a twist, Julio opened the magickal plug that held all the stored energy in place and threaded the ends of the white energy he Held in his hands into it. Slowly it cyphoned into the stone, melding and absorbing into the other energies with ease. Soon, all the energy was safetly inside and Julio closed his empty hands.   
  
Then, with another twist, he closed the stone and withdrew from the man's energy field. It was over.  
  
Opening his eyes once more, he felt his stomach drop as he saw the sad wreck before him.   
  
Wesley Wyndham-Pryce wavered from his perch on the floor, eyes rolling up in his head, mouth slack. He passed out in seconds.   
  
"I told you it was too much." Julio said sadly, staring at the still form on his floor.  
  
(end chapter)  
  
************************ 


	9. Chapter Nine

A/N: Argh! This chapter gave me serious problems and I'm still not happy with it. Please tell me what you think!   
  
Chapter Nine:  
  
Setting---The Hyperion Hotel, same night  
  
Faith was aware of voices, floating just above consciousness. They grounded her and lifted her upwards, toward the light that seemed determined to shine in her eyes.   
  
"I think she's waking up." A kind voice that sounded a bit familiar pierced her eardrums and she flickered her eyes, suddenly aware of the fact that she had a body. A body that ached in all the places she knew weren't supposed to ache. What had happened?  
  
"What happened?" Faith asked, tongue thick and sticking to the roof of her mouth. She drew a painful breath, feeling like her lungs were full of water.   
  
Then, before anyone could answer, she remembered. Remembered everything that had happened back at the warehouse. Bile rose and she let it. She leaned over the edge of the soft couch she was layed out on and ejected everything in her stomach.   
  
Someone held her hair back. Someone else attempted to put a trash can under her. That someone also got splattered.   
  
When she was finished, her stomach spasming and her nose burning, she layed back, tears threatening to spill once more. She took a steadying breath and then looked up at the crowd around her.   
  
The pregnant blonde was holding a washcloth, biting her lip and staring worriedly at her. She'd been the one holding her hair back. Anne, she remembered, was her name. Her husband, Gunn, snatched the washcloth from her hands and wiped the vomit from his arm. Faith could see beyond the two of them and recognized the green demon. The girl in his arms, she didn't know.  
  
"Where's Wesley?" Her voice sounded so timid, especially to her own ears.   
  
"I, um...we don't know." Anne said, reaching out and tucking a strand of hair behind Faith's ears. For some reason, the gesture left her with a lump in her throat. It was a simple gesture, really, but something about it was comforting. It almost reminded her of her mother. Back when her mother was still sober enough to recognize her.  
  
"I just paged him. He should be here soon." Gunn said, picking up the soiled trashcan and walking away. Faith watched him go, wondering if she should trust him. After all, Wesley trusted him; he trusted all of them.   
  
"He's all dim!" The strange girl with the long brown hair said loudly, trying to get out of Lorne's grip. He restrained her, speaking softly in her ear, his hands cupping her face and his one gleaming eye kind.   
  
"Who?" Faith started, not sure if she was asking who the girl was, or who was dim. The girl saw Faith's eyes on her and she burst out of Lorne's grip.  
  
"He's all dim and he's not at fault. I saw him and you have to find him! I saw you!" The girl said, falling to her knees, paying no attention to the fact that she was kneeling in a puddle of puke. "She's not dead and you're okay, you're okay and not dead, not dead at all!"  
  
"Fred, honey....you have to calm down." Lorne said, reaching for her again. She waved him off, grabbing ahold of Faith's hand.   
  
"Who?" Faith asked again, this time specific in her meaning.   
  
"Wesley." Fred spoke the name with awe. Faith's heart leapt and then crashed to the earth.  
  
"What about him, Fred?" Anne asked, glancing over at Gunn, who was walking back into the room.   
  
"He's...he's all dim. That's what I saw."  
  
"What does dim mean?" Gunn asked gently, standing behind his wife.   
  
"I thinks it means that I'm particularily dumb, Charles."   
  
Faith's head snapped around and she looked at the door. Wesley was standing in the doorway of the hotel, one arm draped over the shoulders of a short hispanic man dressed in white robes. Again, her heart leapt and this time, it stayed in the air, caught on the sight of his face.   
  
"What happened to you, bro?" Gunn was the first of them to move and he helped the man in white walk Wes over to the couch opposite Faith. He sank down on it and Faith could almost hear his bones creaking. How the hell had he aged so fast in the space of twenty-four hours?  
  
"What I had to." A weary smile was sent in Charles's direction and the black man's expression hardened.  
  
"So, you're the shaman he's been going to, huh?" He directed his anger in the stranger's direction. The shaman nodded his head, eyes ashamed under the harsh glare of Gunn's eyes. "Why are you letting him do this to himself?"  
  
"Why are you?"   
  
"Don't give me that question-with-a-question crap, I want an answer!" Gunn's voice rose and Faith's head throbbed.   
  
"Charles! Leave Julio alone. I made him." Wesley interrupted with as much force as he could muster in his tired voice. Faith's heart jolted as she looked at the dogged hand he lifted to his wipe at his face; it was paper-thin and spiderwebbed by blue-green viens that she shouldn't have been able to see.   
  
"I don't care what you did, the man's a professional, he should know better." Gunn protested, glaring Julio down. The shaman shrank beneath his gaze and then nodded his head.   
  
"I will leave now. You are safe here Mr. Wyndham-Pryce. Do not come back to me until you are fully rested, if at all." With that, Julio spun on his heel and stalked out of the hotel.   
  
Wesley watched him go, then dropped his head wearily. Silence was long and then Wesley broke it. "What are you doing here, Faith?"   
  
The question seemed strange, coming on the heels of all the drama; Faith had wondered if he had even noticed her presence in the room. Then, she remembered the thing that had made her come running back here, looking for help; his help.   
  
And now she was breathless in the face of telling him what had happened. The blue, blue eyes he turned to her were bleak and stood out against the whiteness of his skin. He had his own problems, he didn't need hers. Didn't need the baggage she was carrying around or the murderess that was bound to turn his close-knit family against her. She wanted these people to like her, for reasons unknown to her.   
  
"I...it doesn't matter." She found herself saying, the night's events jammed back behind her teeth and swallowed with a swirl of her tongue. A thick, knotted sensation spread in her belly, but it was familiar; it brought her back to the old days. The ones she'd hoped to never repeat.   
  
Wesley studied her face, his eyes lingering on the vomit still across her lips and the pool on the floor. "Yes it does. Don't keep things from me."   
  
"Oh, that....I um....I just...."  
  
"You're a bad liar, Faith. But I don't have the strength to drag it out of you right now." Wes said and Faith suddenly felt he was distant, lost in his own thoughts. Her heart ached to be within those thoughts, but she knew she wasn't at the moment.   
  
"She's not dead!" Fred piped up suddenly and all eyes turned to her once more.  
  
"Who?" Anne asked, finally letting her curiosity get the better of her. Fred looked relieved that someone was listening to her.  
  
"Faith." Came the reply and before anyone could say anything, she added. "Faith'll tell you."  
  
All eyes turned on Faith. The Slayer closed her eyes and steadied herself, mentally cursing at the strange girl with the weird name. So much for not complicating their lives.  
  
Her eyes locked on Wesley, the world melted away as she started in on the night's events, feeling as if she might vomit all over again. Mercifully, she was empty everywhere that counted.  
  
*******************  
  
Setting---A warehouse in Compton, same night  
  
"So, you wanna tell me where Justine put those documents or shall I snap your neck like I did your friend over there?" Angelus's breath smelled of blood and the recruit-no more than fifteen years old--trembled in his hands.   
  
"I don't know what you're talking about. Please, please let me go!" The boy said, tears forming in his eyes and a slow trickle of piss showing on his pants. Angelus wrinkled his nose at the foul smell and snapped the boy's neck with a twist of his wrist.   
  
"So, where's my next victim?" He grinned at the downed Hunter's all in various wounded states.   
  
"This one looks like he's all full of knowledge!" Cordelia called, dragging a tall black man up by his short, curly hair. "And what's your name, little boy?"   
  
"Fuck you, bitch!" He said and Angelus clucked his tongue at him.   
  
"I wouldn't call her that, she hates that." He informed the Hunter, kicking a random person in the face as he passed by.   
  
"My fucking apologies." The man said, eyes hard on Angelus's face. Angelus was impressed; not many could meet his cold yellow glare.   
  
"I think you know what we're after, little boy, and we're not going stop until we know what all's in that head of yours. What did Justine tell you?"   
  
"Don't tell her anything, Tor!" Someone on the ground shouted; Cordelia immediately made a mental note to rip that person's throat out.   
  
"Tor, is it? Second-in-command, Tor?" Cordelia asked, yanking on the scalp beneath her fingers once more.   
  
"Yeah, what of it?" Tor spat back, throat exposed in a way that didn't make him comfortable in the least.  
  
"Well, then you're the one to talk to, next to Dead Dora down there on the floor." Angelus gestured in the direction of Justine's body on the ground. "So spill, or I'll spill your guts out all over the pretty floor here."  
  
"Fuck you!"   
  
"Wrong answer!"   
  
Twenty minutes later, Tor resembled a broken doll, arms akimbo, blood burbling out of the corner of his lips. He had a few minutes left to live if he had that. The things the commander had known had long since tumbled from his lips. There was just one more thing they needed.  
  
"So where are those documents?"  
  
"Second floorboard in the office, upstairs." The reply was a wheeze really and then....nothing. Angelus threw his head down into the dust and stood, a smile on his bloodied lips.   
  
"That's was some mighty fine torturing you did there Cor, I'm impressed and that's something coming from me."   
  
Cordelia nearly beamed at him, clothing immaculate despite the deep stains on her clothing. "Not so bad yourself."  
  
"Yeah, I thought so too." He gestured at the dead bodies surrounding them. "I guess we've got our henchmen back."   
  
"And our copy of the prophecy."  
  
"So, where were you when I was having all the fun?" Angelus asked her, kicking at a random body.   
  
"Cleaning up the stragglers. Where did Faith go?"   
  
"Where do you think?" Angelus rolled his eyes and Cordelia frowned.   
  
"You think she's going to be a problem?"   
  
"She hasn't been yet. She's been a great help, on the whole." Angelus said distractedly, picking a bit of flesh out of his teeth with his pinky. Cordelia grimaced and then turned back toward Justine's fallen form.   
  
Her eyes widened.   
  
She was gone.  
  
*********************  
  
Setting---The Hyperion Hotel, same night  
  
"You don't believe her." Lorne said, standing just inside Wesley's office door. The ex-Watcher sat down heavily in his chair and rubbed at his temples. He felt sick to his stomach and felt waves nausea wash over him a moment before he popped a pain-killer into his mouth.  
  
"Do you?" He turned glassy eyes to the aura-reader's face.   
  
"No. She's hiding something and whatever it is, it's not good."   
  
"It never is." Wesley said glumly, his hands trembling. The night was catching up with him quickly and he was exhausted beyond belief. He grimaced and peered past Lorne, eyeing the girl sitting on the couch next to Anne. His heart lurched, settled somewhere in his throat and then got washed backward with a deep sigh.  
  
"What's all this?" Gunn asked, settling down in the seat last occuppied by Lilah Morgan. Wesley flinched at the memory of her, her scent still lingering in the spaces he had once prayed she'd never be again.   
  
Another pill shooed her away.   
  
"Nyazian scrolls courtesy of Wolfram & Hart."  
  
"Is that what Lilah was here for? To try and give you a job again? I hope you told her to shove it." Gunn snorted and picked through the piles of papers.  
  
"On the contrary; I took the job."  
  
Gunn's mouth dropped open. "WHAT?"   
  
"Well, there were reasons, obviously." Wesley seemed a little light-headed now that the medicine was taking effect on him. Slowly, speech slurred slightly, he told them what Lilah had told him, flashing the scrolls like a visual aide.  
  
"Ah, that's what Angelus and Cordelia were doing when Faith found them. I'd been wondering that." Gunn nodded his head. "So we're joining up with Wolfram & Hart? Glad you just decided that for all of us."  
  
"Well, it's more of a 'me' thing, Charles. It's always about me...me, me, me." A strange giggle escaped his lips and Gunn stared at him.   
  
"You've got issues Wesley." Gunn's voice was stony as he looked him up and down.  
  
"Indeed, I do." He ran a hand through his white-streaked hair.   
  
"Why did you go YET again?" Gunn asked him. Concern wrinkled his forehead and he steepled his fingers in front of his face.   
  
"I don't know if that's your business, Charles." Wesley said petulantly, adjusting his glasses on the bridge of his nose and eyeing his two friends.   
  
"I know why." Lorne said darkly and rubbed his chin with a long finger.   
  
"Then share with the class, cuz I'm not getting why the man would attempt suicide." Gunn said an then saw the anger flash in Wesley's eyes.   
  
"He's afraid of failure."  
  
"Failing who?"  
  
"The world." Wesley answered gruffly, feeling slightly on trial before his two best friends.  
  
"I can understand that, but damn Wes...." Gunn's voice trailed off and Wesley looked down at his trembling hands.   
  
"I know, Charles. But I don't want to talk about it right now. I did something stupid, well worth it, but stupid. I'll deal. I've got work to do and...things...."  
  
"This prophecy that you're so afraid of for one?" Gunn's eyebrows drew up.   
  
"Yes...and other things."   
  
"Faith?" Gunn smirked at him questioningly.  
  
Wesley just stared at him and then looked past him to the girl on the couch, suddenly feeling very sick to his stomach. As soon as Lilah left he'd stared at the scrolls, laid out on his desk, mocking him. The smell was the same, the parchment slightly different in places where someone had decided to highlight passages--in yellow. The past flooded back to him, of the same desk, the same scroll, the same dreadful feeling in his stomach.   
  
And then, he'd been gone, running out the door because he suddenly had the whole world on his shoulders once more. He couldn't do it. Would rather die for a good cause than let the world down. But here he was, still alive and kicking himself because of what he'd tried to do.   
  
The whole world did rest on his shoulders and had many times before, and that was how it had to be. According to Lilah, he was the best and the world depended on his skill. Despite his failures of the past, he couldn't fail now. And no matter how much he wanted to crawl into a bottle of whiskey, he was going to meet it with a brave face. Here he was nearly killing himself because he was afraid, when the girl out there was slowly wrapping herself up in lies. AGAIN.   
  
His eyes still roved Faith's face and she suddenly felt his gaze on her. She turned, staring into his office, face pale and scared. She had a familiar look on her face, one he knew all too well.   
  
"She's lying to me." Wesley murmered, suddenly feeling sick because he wanted to believe she wasn't. Wanted to believe she trusted him, even though she had no reason to.   
  
"I thought we covered that." Gunn said and Wesley broke eye contact with the Slayer in the other room.   
  
"You thought she was lying?" Wes's eyebrow rose as he stared at his best friend.   
  
"Duh."   
  
"Fuck."   
  
"So what are we going to do?"  
  
"Nothing, for now. If she wants me to believe she just came running back here because she didn't like Justine's policies, then that's fine. If I know her, the truth'll leak out." Wesley answered Lorne's question wearily, pushing the bottle away from himself. He felt sick and not just from the shock to his system. "Later, I'll talk to her. Alone."  
  
Gunn and Lorne exchanged looks, but stopped when they noticed Wesley slumping over in his chair. He was out like a light. A very pale, sick looking light.  
  
"This isn't good...." Gunn said, staring at the waxy version of Wesley.  
  
"Understatement, hot chocolate." Was Lorne's only answer as he stood and glared worriedly at his boss. This was not good at all.   
  
(end chapter)  
  
*********************** 


	10. Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten:  
  
Setting---The Hyperion Hotel, three days later  
  
For three days Faith had been haunting the hotel, showing her face at odd intervals and spending her time in the room adjacent to Fred's. Three days of fleeting glimpses of a white face, dark eyes and long brown hair. Three days of Wesley going slowly mad.  
  
Whatever she was keeping from him, she seemed determined not to let it spill. Lorne, having already tested her boundaries and finding her mind locked up tight--Wesley was alive with curiosity about how she learned THAT particular trick--was at a loss on how to reach her. Not only was she not inclined to leave the hotel, but she was avoiding him at all costs. The only ones of the five Connor Investigations team Faith even glanced at was Anne and Fred. Anne she clung to, almost leech-like and the other she kept at a wary, but intrigued, distance.   
  
All the while, Wesley had other problems. Since his magical draining, he'd been feeling decidedly off and the fact that he was working day and night on the scrolls wasn't helping him any. The feeling grew everytime he stood, his chest thumping hollowly and his muscles straining like it was too large a feat. A headache line had taken up residence between his thick eyebrows, and his mouth was drawn into a thin white line. Gunn had been giving him odd sidelong glances whenever he was in the same room with him.   
  
Finally, it was getting to be too much and Wesley slammed his pen down on the tablet of paper before him, glaring up at Charles. "WHAT?"  
  
"Nothing!" Gunn said immediately, looking as if he were biting back a different retort.  
  
"Then leave me alone!" Wesley blinked the spots away from his vision.   
  
"Are you okay, dude?" Gunn said after a moment, seeing the color draining out of Wesley's face.  
  
"Peachy." Wesley murmered, the ancient text before him swimming slightly. He blinked once more and heard the world roaring in his ears. He pitched sideways as gravity dumped him out of his chair. His vision completely grayed and for a moment he wondered who the hell had turned the lights out.  
  
When the world came back, he was staring at Gunn's worried face. "Oopsy..."  
  
"Fuck, Wes....what's going on?"   
  
"Julio said it was too much...dammit." Wesley mumbled, shaking his head. He immediately wished he hadn't as the world moved in slow motion again. "Mmm....that's sickening...."  
  
"What's sickening is watching you killing yourself."   
  
"I'm NOT going over this with you again. Old arguement, Charles...let it die."  
  
"Let me go next time. Shaman dude can do his voodoo on me."   
  
Wesley sighed and looked gratefully up at Gunn. "That's kind of you to offer, but my energy is the only thing that will work." Off Gunn's blank look, he went on. "The spell I'm using requires a great deal of personal energy, and that means once you start building it all up, you have to use the same vessel every time. The vessel being me. Your energy is useless, I'm afraid."   
  
"And once the energy is all stored up?" Charles's eyes narrowed.  
  
"Then I use it."  
  
"And can only YOU use it?"   
  
"No, actually. Anyone can do the spell to open the Quor-toth, as long as they have the obsidian." Wesley wiped at his brow and realized he was sweating, despite the drifting waves of a/c in the air. His breath felt oddly shortened too.  
  
"And that's that stone thingy, right?"   
  
"Why are you asking so many questions?" Wesley asked him curiously.  
  
Charles's face went dark and he looked away.   
  
"Charles?"  
  
"I just want to make sure that it's not all going to go to waste, you know....if...if..."  
  
"If this kills me." Wesley supplied, voice quiet. He gulped back a bitter taste in his mouth.  
  
"Yeah." Charles let out a big breath and then continued, "If you die before you can do the spell, I wanna make sure I can do it for you." Gunn raised his chin and stared at him stonily. Wesley smiled weakly.   
  
"Thank you, Charles. I'll make sure to leave the stone and the spell in the safe for you when the time comes."   
  
When. He'd used iwhen/i and not iif/i. He knew this was killing him for sure. Neither one spoke for a moment and then Wesley sighed.   
  
"If the time comes. I still have to translate this prophecy. World might end before we have to find out, you know." His voice was weary as he looked back down at the brown scrolls spread out across his desk.   
  
"I'll leave you alone then. Do you need anything, man?" Gunn's eyes were deeply shadowed with worry. Wesley smiled grimly.  
  
"No. Just shut the door behind you, please." Gunn nodded and went to shut the door behind him, but Wesley stopped him. "Do me a favor and don't tell the others. Lorne knows....but I don't want Anne or Fred to worry anymore than they have to."  
  
"And your Slayer?"  
  
"She's not mine and if she decideds to talk to you, which I doubt, don't mention it. There's still things I need to work out with her, okay?"   
  
"Right." The door clicked silently behind him and Wesley was faced with a silent office and those damned scrolls he hated so much. He picked up his pen and started in, trying to ignore the clouded feeling that had been slowly building in his chest and head.   
  
He was running out of time, and unfortunately, so was the world.  
  
*****************  
  
Setting---Under the Beverly Center, same day  
  
"I need to shower. For a year." Cordelia's voice was a moan as she caught another whiff of the putridness. "You smell like shit."  
  
Angelus snorted and turned a grin on her. "Try being a vampire. You don't smell any better, believe me."   
  
"Ugh!" Cordelia grimaced and looked down at the brown-flecked heels and the brown-ish colored blood on her hands and chest. "I'm going to get sick."  
  
"Don't. We don't have time." Angelus hurried his step and gestured her forward in the tunnel.  
  
"We just beat up a shit demon for information! We're the bad guys! We have to now take time to reflect on our bad deeds. I'm going to use that time to throw up." Cordelia insisted, doubling over in the tunnel.   
  
Angelus grunted and turned on her. "I know the routine, but according to that Oshet Mar, we idon't/i have time, Cor."   
  
"I know...but..." She looked faintly green around the edges for a moment, her long dark hair swinging around her face.   
  
"But if we don't find out where the psychic shit demon says the breach in the fabric of time happens, we're not going to be in time to stop the Powers That Be from stopping it!" Angelus threw up his hands. "Was I the only one listening in there?"  
  
"Hey, don't get crabby with me, Mr. Tall, Dark and Deadly! I'm not the one who decided we needed to take a three day break and turn Justine's humans into an undead army of vampires!" Cordelia protested, lurching upward, hands on her hips.   
  
"We need backup when we find out who and what is going to try and stop the end of the world! Am I the only one who looks ahead to the future? You know, the one we hope to end?" Angelus growled at her.  
  
"Don't start! And what about Justine, hmm? Where did her corpse run off to? You said Faith killed her!"  
  
"I can't think of everything! That's why we're partners!"   
  
"God! You were never this pigheaded when you had a soul!"   
  
Angelus grabbed her in an instant and slammed her against the wall of the tunnel, eyes going gold. "I thought we weren't supposed to mention that, sweetie."  
  
"Sorry. Honey." Cordelia glared at him, her fingertips shining slightly.   
  
"You're glowing."  
  
"You're vamping." She shot back, eyebrow quirking.  
  
"Have I ever told you how hot you are when you're pissing me off?"  
  
"Frequently."   
  
He captured her lips and pressed his cold, hard body against hers. She let herself be carried away, returning the kiss until his hands ventured lower, seeking the hem of her short skirt. With a grunt she pushed him away.  
  
"Ew! We're covered in dead shit demon!" She stalked off past him and he shook his head.  
  
Some things never changed.  
  
************************  
  
Setting---Sahjan's Lair, same day  
  
The cave was dark, the torches that had once burned on the walls now blackened stumps. Cobwebs were everywhere, dust was so thick that it threatened to make her sneeze. She gritted her teeth and prayed she wouldn't. A sneeze would mean moving her head and moving her head would mean that her back would scream at her.  
  
Justine gasped as she sat down. She hurt everywhere she could feel.   
  
The table was the same as it had been so long ago and she felt her lip tremble.   
  
"I'm sorry Daniel. I wanted to do your work for you, but I failed. Angelus got them all." She whispered to the emptiness, her breath stirring the dust on the table. Beneath she saw the dim stain of old blood and a deep gouge mark in the table. Gently she placed her palm down on top of it, phantom pain lacing through her hand. Through the dirt on her skin, she could see the pale scar atop her hand. She knew without looking that there was an indentical one on her palm.   
  
Justine smiled, but it melted into a grimace of pain.  
  
The vampire and the demon wanted to end the world, huh? This is what they had killed for. Justine felt disgusted.  
  
The instinct to panic rose and she forced it back down. According to her experience, the world was always ending. Someone would take care of it and she had a feeling that Slayer-bitch was going to be in on it. Fuck her, maybe Justine had other things on her mind.   
  
Revenge, perhaps?  
  
A slow smile spread over her lips. An idea sparked in her brain and caught fire quickly.   
  
She was going to get them all and finally end Daniel's work.  
  
(end chapter)  
  
************************** 


	11. Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven:  
  
Setting---The Hyperion Hotel, the next day  
  
Faith slammed the door to the room that had been emptied for her. She felt like a coward hiding up here in Wesley's hotel, hiding from what she'd done and what she was afraid she'd do next. A sick, roiling feeling in her stomach was slowly taking over and spreading to her limbs.   
  
She sat down on the bed, fingers tugging at the hem of her shirt, her legs itching to run. She felt like she was living back in the prison, only this room had a door she could walk out of at will. She stared at the scarred oak and dared it to open up. Dared the world to be okay outside of it, dared the sun to shine and birds to sing. Dared herself to just get up and run and run until she wasn't sure where she was. As long as she wasn't here.  
  
Faith just sat there, chewing her bottom lip.   
  
They didn't believe her and she knew it. The truth had been jammed back in her throat and she'd lied to them. To him. Again. Flashes of his face, reading her her rights and clamping chains on her had come back full force and she'd shut her mouth and just told them the first thing that had come to mind.   
  
It wasn't such a stretch, afterall, that she'd clashed with Justine's ways and had decided to leave. She had been thinking that, in fact. But she hadn't planned on running straight back here where she was knew was expected to go. The fact that she felt safe here was enough to make her stomach churn.   
  
"FUCK this!" She ground out, standing and walking towards the door. Her hand touched the knob just as someone on the other side knocked. Faith tensed, held her breath and waited, frozen in place.  
  
"Faith? Hey...um...you awake?" Faith let out her breath immediately and pulled the door open. Anne smiled at her from the other side.   
  
"Hey." She answered flippantly, eyes darting back behind the pregnant blonde to the hallway. No one else lurked in the corners and she turned her attention back to the woman before her. "What's up?"  
  
"We're having a meeting. Business stuff."   
  
"Umm...so?" Faith shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot.  
  
"So I thought you'd like to come. There might be action." Faith nearly smiled. Anne knew how to appeal to her Slayer side. Still, she just stared at her. Anne went on, grinning widely. "Fight-y fightness. Rough stuff. Killing. Maiming. Ribs afterward."  
  
That broke her. Faith found herself grinning and gestured the blonde onward with a wave of her hand.  
  
Ten minutes later, she was tucked into a corner of Wesley's office, trying to blend in with the shadows--not something she was used to doing. Anne was sitting in the only other chair in the room, facing Wesley. Gunn was hovering over her shoulder, looking as antsy as Faith felt. Lorne was leaning against the doorframe. Faith didn't know where Fred was, but she guessed the screaming she'd heard yesterday meant she wasn't going to be seen for a couple of days.   
  
Her eyes turned from the cycloptic demon to the man in charge. She frowned and took a moment to study him. He looked even worse for wear today than the night she'd arrived here. From what Anne had explained to her, whatever he'd done to himself should have been righted by now. He wasn't supposed to look so...worn.  
  
A pain shot across her heart and she worried her lip between her teeth. His clothing was rumpled and so was his streaked hair, which would have charmed her if his skin wasn't so pale. Looking up from his notes, he caught her eye and smiled so slightly she wasn't sure if he'd really done it. A moment later, he looked away and cleared his throat.  
  
"Two things. We actually have a case, which means money." Wesley turned from one to the other and then took a deep breath. "A Villsk demon is living in Belle Apartments, eating the inhabitants. The owner of the building wants us to kill it. Gunn?"   
  
"On it." Charles took the scrap of paper with the address from Wesley's outstretched hand.   
  
"And the other thing?" Lorne asked from behind them all.   
  
"Lorne and I are going to a source of ours for information."   
  
"You want me to go with you, bro?" Gunn asked, eyes narrowed.  
  
"No...we can do this alone. The source is friendly if not...unpleasant." Wes answered, folding his hands on the desk.   
  
"Kay..." Gunn's voice trailed off and he looked over at Faith. "So, Slayer, wanna tag along?"   
  
Normally, a remark like that would have her hissing and responding with something smartassed, but she only nodded her head and stood. "If you can keep up with me." Gunn smiled and gestured her forward. Faith walked past Lorne and glanced back over her shoulder to see Gunn kiss Anne swiftly on the cheek before he turned and walked out the door.   
  
Again, Wesley caught her eye and Faith stopped dead in her tracks. Gunn stepped past her, but she ignored him, a pair of blue eyes boring into hers. A hard lump of guilt formed in her stomach and her breath caught in her throat. As she watched, he mouthed something and it took her a moment to register what it was.  
  
"Be careful."  
  
The corners of her mouth drew up and she swallowed hard. "You too..." she mouthed back. He grinned and she felt her smile growing despite herself.  
  
"Faith? You ready?" Gunn's voice cut through the line between them and she turned toward the tall black man.   
  
"Yeah." Faith answered, grabbing up the sword Gunn offered her and following him out the door. She could have sworn she felt a pair of eyes boring holes into her back as she left.  
  
**************  
  
Setting---Belle Apartments, an hour and a half later  
  
Gunn bent over double, his hands on his knees, panting loudly. A slash on his forehead was running blood down into his eyes and he wiped at it with an orange-bloodied hand. Beside him, Faith calmly cleaned her sword blade on the dead Villsk's black robe. She wasn't even sweating.  
  
"Damn girl! You got serious game." He puffed, grimacing as he skimmed along his ribcage to feel the tender muscles. Another bruise and he sighed. "Now I know exactly what a Slayer can do."  
  
"That? Cake." Faith answered, standing and surveying the damage to the apartment. "You should try 'gators. Evil bastards. Steve makes it look easy, but it's not."   
  
"What?" Gunn's brow furrowed and she shrugged.   
  
"Nevermind. So, what are we supposed to do now?" Faith shoved her hands in her pockets, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet. She looked uncomfortable now that there wasn't killing to be done, not that Charles could blame her. He didn't really know her all that well.   
  
"Dispose of the carcass. The basement of this place has an incinerator, I think." Together, they carried the dead Villsk down to the incinerator; Gunn wrinkled his nose as the dead demon's mottled orange flesh caught fire. "And now we get paid."  
  
"Wait a minute." Faith's voice was abrupt and it stopped Charles in his tracks. He looked back to see her swing the door the incinerator open and reach her hand into the flames. When she brought it back out again, she was holding something in her hand.   
  
"What's that?"  
  
"Dunno. It was around his neck." Faith studied it curiously and then handed it to Gunn. He took it and studied it too, but the flat coin wasn't anywhere near familiar.   
  
"Looks talisman-y to me. I bet Wes'll know what it is."   
  
"Wesley sure knows a lot, doesn't he?"   
  
Gunn's attention snapped back to the Slayer and he caught the smile quirking the corners of her lips and the faraway look in her eyes before she wiped her expression away. Alarms went off in his head as he smiled and handed the coin back to her. She promptly pocketed it as he answered, "He's the brains of the operation. Leader-type."  
  
"You're all one big family, I guess. Everyone's got a part to play." Gunn had a feeling she'd meant the remark to be sarcastic, but it came out wistful.   
  
"Well, I'm the muscle, Anne's our mother, Lorne's the mojo, and Fred is...Fred is Fred." She smiled at that and then frowned.  
  
"Where's the heart?"   
  
"What?"  
  
"The heart of the group. There's always a heart in the movies." Faith stared at him and he chewed on his lip.   
  
"The heart left us a long time ago." He said quietly and watched her frown deepen. Turning on his heel, he walked up the stairs, leaving her staring after him. "But we might get her back someday."   
  
**************  
  
Setting---Wolfram & Hart, same day  
  
Lilah half-jumped as her intercomm buzzed. Bending forward, she hit the button.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Mr. Morris on line three for you." Fuck, Lilah thought, her stomach flip-flopping.   
  
"Put him through."   
  
Lilah lifted the reciever and spoke, hoping her nervousness wouldn't show through. "Lilah Morgan."  
  
"Ms. Morgan, I'm looking at a report on my desk." Leonard Morris's voice was clipped and business-like.   
  
"Are you sir?" Lilah asked, wondering where this was going.  
  
"Yes I am. And do you know what that report says?"  
  
"No, sir."   
  
"Oh, it's very interesting. It says, and I quote, that , "Angelus and Cordelia Chase, having already attained a copy of the prophecy mentioned in the Nyazian Scrolls, are now seeking to bring the prophecy to fruition. Wolfram & Hart psychics say they have deciphered the cause of the Cataclysm, but cannot ForeSee it themselves. Angelus and Chase have not deciphered the rest of the prophecy or it's calculations. A translation of our own is needed as soon as possible."   
  
Morris paushed in his narration and made a cluck-cluck sound over the phone. "So, Ms. Morgan, do we have that translation?"   
  
"No we don't, sir."   
  
"Why is that?"  
  
"Wyndham-Pryce has not contacted me in regards to it."   
  
"Contact him and up the price if he speeds up the work. And Ms. Morgan, I want something done about Angelus. Your mistake on their part should have already been corrected. Do what you have to to throw them off the trail, but do not harm Angelus. Remember the policy."   
  
"As if I could forget." It's been a pain in my ass from day one. Lilah silently added. "I'll take care of them, sir. And I'll contact Wyndham-Pryce as soon as possible in regards to the prophecy."   
  
"Good. Do not disappoint me, Ms. Morgan." Leonard Morris said, and she had a feeling disappointing him was out of the question. He confirmed it with his next statement. "Or I'll have you killed."  
  
"Of course, sir."   
  
"Goodbye." He hung up, leaving her with dead air. On a sigh, Lilah replaced the reciever and rubbed her temples with her fingertips.   
  
"This isn't good."   
  
*********************  
  
Setting---Under the Beverly Center, same day  
  
"This isn't good." Wesley murmered, his nose wrinkled at the smells surrounding him.  
  
"Well it's not the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, that's for sure." Lorne echoed, looking a little greener than usual around the edges. Wesley couldn't blame him.  
  
The Oshet Mar was flayed open on the floor, rotting skin covered in blood that resembled...well...shit. It was foul and sharp in the air. Wesley fought the urge to throwup.   
  
Whatever had done this had enjoyed it. It was a purposeful slay, not random, as there would have been signs of a fight. But maybe not, Wesley thought, Oshet Mar's were harmless, but unpleasant demons. Fighting wasn't their style. Whatever the case though, his source was dead and he was once again at odds.  
  
The night before he'd translated a small part of the scroll. He wasn't sure what it meant and his hesitation to interpret it was marred by previous experiences. Whatever the case, he wanted an accurate source to validate him. Not to mention the fact that the Oshet Mar was psychic and could pick up on waves of energy leading to a specific event. If something big was going to happen, then the demon would know.  
  
This particular Oshet Mar, Nashtel, had once picked up on a wave and contacted Lorne. That event had led Lorne back into Wesley's path and the reformation of Angel Investigations, promptly renamed Connor Investigations.   
  
But that was another story altogether.   
  
He looked down at Nashtel and sighed, careful not to breathe in too deeply. "If someone else knew about his psychic link to the world, then he was probably killed for a reason." He said out loud, turning towards Lorne.  
  
"The prophecy?"  
  
"What do you think?"  
  
"I think there's something in the air and it's familiar." Lorne said, using whatever power it was he possessed to watch the ebb and flow of mystical energy in the air. Wesley watched his face darken.   
  
Wesley knew without being told who was behind it. If Nashtel had known anything at all, Angelus and Cordelia knew it too. And that meant they were one step ahead.   
  
"Fuck."  
  
(end chapter)  
  
*********************** 


	12. Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve:  
  
Setting---The Hyperion Hotel, same night  
  
"Ribs!" Gunn announced as he walked into the lobby, a big paper bag in his hand.   
  
Anne squealed and rushed forward, nearly ripping the bag out of his hands. "And the ice cream? And the Christmas jimmies?"   
  
"Yes, of course honey...although why you had to have Christmas jimmies when we had regular jimmies here..."  
  
"There's a difference! Believe me!"  
  
"In what? Color?"   
  
"Taste!"  
  
"They don't have a taste! They're sprinkles!"   
  
Faith found herself smiling as she watched the two argue back and forth---lovingly. Their tones were amused, not malicious and that was refreshing. Back in prison, no one was ever nice to you for no reason. And the rest of her life had pretty much been the same as that. Sarcasm without kindness. Hand in hand. Something new was refreshing and she basked in it, curled up in a ball on the red couch.   
  
Still, she waited for the ax to fall and someone to go too far and say something that would ruin the good vibe.   
  
"You wouldn't understand, Charles. You're not eight months pregnant and craving strange foods." Anne's lip poked out charmingly.  
  
"Good thing...cuz I'd look pretty funny with a buddha belly, huh?" He flashed a grin at her and she giggled, leaning in for a kiss. Faith felt a pang. No fighting, no break in the mood. Normality that wasn't normal to her.   
  
"Jesus Murphy, break it up you two!" Faith turned toward the new person in the room and wrinkled her nose. She didn't dislike the demon--he just made her uncomfortable. He knew too much for his own good and yet he was still a good guy and the only stand-up man among them, according to Anne. When everyone had abandoned Fred, it was Lorne who had stayed and played Champion to the Seer. It made her look with new respect at the anagogic demon. He was a lover and not a fighter, yet he'd taken up the role.   
  
Why? Love, she supposed, remembering the look on his face whenever he was with Fred. A warm fuzzy feeling settled in her stomach and she grimaced. She hated warm fuzzy feelings but....maybe just this once...  
  
Her eyes caught on Wesley, close on the demon's heels. His face was dark, eyes shadowed, jaw set. Something was disturbing him.   
  
"How did it go?" Anne asked, walking the precious bag of ribs over to the counter. Wesley stepped past her without saying a word, the door to his office nearly slamming shut behind him.  
  
"What crawled up his ass and died?" Gunn asked, looking back at Lorne, eyebrows raised.  
  
"That was kinda ironic, Charles." Lorne said without a smile. Quickly he told them what happened. Gunn whistled.  
  
"So we're going to have to deal with scroll-obsessed Wesley until this is all over? I swear...I really hate those two."   
  
"You and the rest of the world right now, Gunn. He killed Nashtel...he wasn't a bad guy. A little big into the septic tank life, but otherwise a good guy." Lorne frowned and then turned his attention to the wide stairway. "How's Fred?"  
  
"Hungry, but she doesn't want to come down. She says the rattlesnakes are biting her toes and she doesn't want to drink paper out of a fishtank, thank you very much." Anne replied; Lorne actually smiled and Faith shook her head. It was obvious that whatever the Seer had said, it meant she was fine.   
  
As the three of them talked, Faith suddenly wondered where Wesley was. He should have been back already. Worry gnawed in her gut.  
  
"And how are you, my little jailbird?" The demon asked, turning on Faith and snapping her out of her thoughts. He sat down next to her uninvited.  
  
Deer caught in headlights, Faith sat up and mumbled a reply. "Five by five." Lorne eyed her up and down and then smiled.  
  
"He'll be okay, he's just worried." Her eyes narrowed. "You're leaking around the edges sweetheart." Lorne said softly and she had that distinct feeling he was rooting around in her head again. Her eyes flashed and he withdrew with a smirk.   
  
"I'd appreciate if you stayed out of my aura or whatever."   
  
"Not really an issue. You're good at blocking it, but sometimes you leak things that I can't help but seeing. Like now."  
  
"What was I leaking?"  
  
"A pretty red and blue color." Lorne winked and then stood. Faith watched him walk up the stairs, a foodbox in his hands and a jaunt in his steps. She wondered what red and blue meant. Purple? She frowned and shrugged. She didn't know auras at all.  
  
"You hungry Faith?" Gunn offered from the counter, pushing a box in her direction. Suddenly ravenous, she jumped up and started in, hanging on the edge of the conversation and sometimes being pulled in by the two of them. Both of them kept smiling at her and asking her questions. She even laughed.   
  
What? Was she bonding with them? Well, she liked them, she knew that. Gunn she respected because he wasn't afraid to speak his mind. And he was nice, without being phony. Anne reminded her of someone she couldn't quite put her finger on. Perhaps a mother; afterall, Gunn had called her that. She certainly did take care of everyone like she had given birth to each and every one of them and wasn't just expecting for the first time. And despite being only slightly older than Faith, she had that air about her like she'd seen a lot in her life, maybe more than Faith ever had. It was obvious though, that she'd come out of it unscathed and happy.   
  
So, yeah. She liked them. A lot.   
  
That was why she felt so bad for lying to them. They wouldn't like her if they knew what she'd done and Faith had the overwhelming urge to keep the tenious friendship they'd erected over the past few days intact. Still, guilt gnawed in her gut. She again thought of Wesley.  
  
Faith's attention turned to the closed door of the office. She knew he would be in there, working on that prophecy until he fell asleep, only to wake up in the morning and do the whole day over again. She half-smiled and felt that fuzzy feeling grow, despite her attempts to squash it.   
  
"Faith? Faith?"  
  
Her attention snapped back to Anne and Gunn, who were both looking at her questioningly. "Umm...huh?"  
  
"I said, Anne's tired and we're gonna get home. You okay here alone?" Gunn said, eyebrows rising, gesturing slightly at the lobby and the hotel beyond it.   
  
"Yeah." She nodded her head vaguely and smile tight-lipped. "Have a good night." Pleasantries, Faith? Who would have thought?   
  
"See you tomorrow, Slay-buddy." Gunn waved and then helped Anne into her coat. Faith watched as they walked to the door. On the last step, Anne stopped and turned toward Faith.  
  
"Hey, do me a favor and take some food to Wesley. He's not eating enough. And if there's any way you can get him into bed, that would be great."  
  
Faith flushed a moment before she realized exactly * what* Anne had meant.   
  
"Umm..sure..." She mumbled a reply, wondering when she'd ever blushed before. "See ya."  
  
The door closed behind them, leaving Faith to stare back at the closed office door.   
  
Great.  
  
*******  
  
Wesley slammed back a shot of whiskey, grimacing slightly as the liquid burned it's way down. He slammed the shot glass back on the table and closed his eyes. Sparks swam across the black on the inside of his eyelids a moment before he forced his tired eyes back open and down to the notepad in front of him.  
  
Thick black letters were jumbled and hurriedly written; completely disorganized to anyone who wasn't him, but he could find anything on the page in a second. The scrolls were spread out in front of him, a source book to the left, another source book to the right and a pen behind his ear for safe keeping. It was his normal workspace, in the exact order that he needed it and hellfires if anyone touched it but him.   
  
He didn't remember the scrolls being so hard to decipher before. Of course, this part of the ancient parchment hadn't been mucked with by a corporeal, time travelling demon. And it was much longer than the part he recalled regarded Connor. A guilty stab went through him and he grabbed the bottle of whiskey, a quick swig rolling over his tongue.   
  
Each sentence of the prophecy affected the other sentence, so much so that any interpretation of one sentence was completely useless when taken in regards to the others. A million different meanings, a million different calculations were possible--and written down in precise order as he discovered them. Of course, he was constantly balling them up when another translation came to light, completely ruining the work beforehand.   
  
Wesley's eyes swam but he refused to give up. It was much more important now that he translate the text as quickly as possible. If Angelus and Cordelia knew anything at all, it was much more than he knew at the moment and that was....well...bad.   
  
As he reached for the pen behind his ear, a knock came on the door. He groaned and called, "What?"  
  
"It's Faith." Her voice was muffled but clear. Wesley let out a breath, wondering what she wanted. She'd been ignoring him since she came here and now, of all times, she wanted to talk? :Or maybe tell you she was leaving and going back to whatever it was she was doing with Justine that led her here in the first place!:  
  
He rubbed the bridge of his nose frantically, willing his thoughts to stop their circles in his brain. It was making him dizzy. "Come in."  
  
The door opened and the Slayer stepped in, a styrofoam container in her hands. The smell of barbeque was strong and appetizing. "Hey..." Faith offered in hello, fidgeting in place.   
  
"What is it? I'm busy."   
  
"I know....it's just...Anne told me to make sure you ate something. You know what they say, a rib a day'll keep death away!" She offered a lame smile and his eyebrows drew up. "I'm not sure exactly who says that, but it's kinda true."  
  
"Leave the food on the shelf there and I'll eat it later." Wesley answered, gesturing toward the low shelf next to her. She hurriedly did so, but didn't leave. Instead, she looked around the office like she hadn't seen it before in her life, examining the ceiling and the walls, the cracked plaster and the desk. He watched as she pursed her lips and ran her fingers over the books on the shelf, reading the titles and humming slightly.   
  
"Faith? Is there...something you needed?" Wesley interrupted her humming version of a song that sounded vaguely familiar. She looked up at him, as if startled by his presence.   
  
"No...just browsing."   
  
He sighed heavily and put his pencil down on the desk. "No you're not. Sit down."   
  
She followed his gaze to the chair and shrugged before plopping down into it, legs tossed up on his desk, right across his papers. His jaw clenched automatically at the sight and he shot her a look of death. She, of course, ignored him and folded her hands across her lap, waiting for him to say something.  
  
"Did Charles kill the Villsk today?" He asked, picking the first thing that came to his mind.  
  
"No." Off his look, she smiled and went on, "I did. Dead, bang, gone."   
  
"Good, we needed the money. I trust Charles got the check." She nodded and then he eyed her. "What are you doing here Faith?"  
  
The question took her off guard and she sucked in a breath. "I don't know. What am I doing here?"   
  
"I asked you first, love." Her eye twitched and she shrugged again.   
  
"I like your friends, especially Anne." His expression softened at that and he went on.  
  
"Is that the only reason?" Faith was quiet for a moment and then she leaned forward, taking her legs off the desk, much to his delight. She grabbed his whiskey and took a deep drink, keeping her eyes on his as she licked the rim of the bottle. Wesley had to ask again, his voice suddenly tight. "Is that the only reason?"   
  
"I'm still trying to decide that, Wes. Maybe.....maybe I like what you do here."  
  
"I thought you weren't interested in this." Wesley countered, leaning forward to take the bottle from her hands.  
  
"Changed my mind." He desperately wanted to ask her exactly what had made her change that mind, but he kept his mouth shut. All he did was nod and pass the bottle back to her, watching as she took another deep drink.   
  
Neither one spoke for a moment and Wesley felt a blush creeping up his neck. It was suddenly too hot in the office and he wondered if Lorne had messed with the thermostat again.   
  
"Umm....I found something on that Villsk today. Gunn said you'd know what it meant." Faith said suddenly, digging into her jeans pocket and pulling out a large bronze coin.   
  
He took it from her outstretched hands and squinted at it. "You say you got this off the Villsk?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Well then it makes sense. It's a coin of Auturus, the god the Villsk demons pray to. His symbol protects the wearer from disaster. It's actually a good talisman to have--if you believe in Auturus that is."   
  
"I guess our Villsk didn't much believe cuz he didn't see me coming." Faith smirked and Wesley found the strength to laugh.   
  
"Can I keep it?" She asked, almost like a little girl who'd brought a puppy home with her.   
  
"Sure. It's harmless." Wesley handed it back to her and felt her fingers touch his a second before she pulled away and jammed the coin back into her pockets. He took a steadying breath and started to speak. "Faith I..."  
  
Wesley was suddenly cut off by the phone ringing. He reached for it immediately. "Connor Investigations, Hope is....oh...it's you."  
  
Faith listened as he spoke in rushed tones, turning away from her and covering the mouthpiece with one hand. "You'll get your goddamned translation." Whoever it was, she felt sorry for them because Wesley stopped in midsentence and slammed the phone back down.   
  
He turned back to Faith with a look of hatred spread across his face. "Wes?"   
  
The phone rang again and Wesley calmly took it off the hook, hung it up and and put it on the desk in front of him.  
  
"What's going on?" Faith asked him, eyes wide.  
  
"Nothing, just doing business."   
  
"I may be new to the whole business thing, but aren't the customers always right or something? What's up?"  
  
"None of your business." Faith stood immediately, her expression closed. Wesley was immediately sorry for snapping at her.  
  
"Whatever." She snapped back at him and she started to walk away.  
  
"Faith! I..." Wesley called, and she turned around. He struggled to find something to say. "Thanks for the food." Her expression softened for a moment and then she nodded.  
  
"Get some sleep." And like that, she was gone.  
  
As Wesley watched her go, he wondered what the hell had been going through his head there for a moment. He was actually getting along with her for a minute there and it made him distinctly uneasy. He wasn't exactly sure if he was glad Lilah Morgan had interrupted him or not. Whatever the case, his mind was definately NOT on the scrolls now.  
  
Faith was staying and he was...glad. More than glad, in fact.  
  
Wesley decided he really needed help.   
  
**********************  
  
Setting---A warehouse in Compton  
  
  
"This thing makes no sense!" Cordelia said, throwing her hands up and shoving the papers away from herself. "First off, I don't read whatever the hell this is written in and second of all....it makes no sense!"   
  
Angelus looked up from the big book on his knees and eyed her with amusement. The demoness was surrounded by stacks of papers, a photocopied piece of the scroll in her hands and a harried look on her face. Research was not her forte, but obviously her lot in life. Not even a turn to the dark side let her off the hook.  
  
"I'm not getting anything here either. I say we take a break and check on the recruits." Angelus stood and stretched, looking down into the huge factory from the open office window a floor above them.   
  
Nearly a hundred recruits, fighting hand-to-hand and in full vamp face. Angelus smiled. It was a beautiful scene.   
  
"I think it's time to go back to Wolfram & Hart, Angelus."  
  
"What?" He turned back to his lover and frowned. "You know Lilah is going to give us shit. We're lucky she hasn't done anything with her little commando minions yet."  
  
"True, but I think she knows more than what we do now. Maybe a missing piece of this fucking puzzle. And I'd like to see her translator and pick his brain. Maybe eat it." Cordelia shredded a piece of paper and looked utterly pout-y amidst her failed attempts at scholarly evilness.  
  
"That's not a bad idea, baby. I think you and I are going to have to up the stakes on Lilah. It's about time she did her part in this production."   
  
Cordelia smiled.  
  
(end chapter)  
  
******************* 


	13. Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen:   
  
Setting---The Hyperion Hotel, next day  
  
Faith ducked a blow and spun out a leg, connecting solidly with Gunn's wrist. Before she could lower her leg, he grabbed her boot heel, flipping her around. She landed cat-like on the ground, wild hair flung into her face, muscled arms shining with sweat. Gunn was out of breath and sweating far heavier than she was, the white wifebeater stretched tight across his chest damp down the middle.   
  
"Whoa...Slayer! Break time for the human." Gunn collapsed to his knees and gulped in a lungful of air.   
  
"Come on, I'm just getting warmed up!" Faith fought a grin and stood, stretching her muscles one at a time. Gunn chuckled and mopped his glistening forehead with one weary hand.   
  
"How about you take your aggression out on Lorne next?"  
  
"Mojo guy? He doesn't look like much of a fighter to me."  
  
"You'd be surprised. He could kick my ass if he wanted to. He's a make-love-not-war kinda guy, but if you piss him off enough..." Gunn smiled and poured half a bottle of water over his head, blinking away drops of water from his vision.  
  
"You talking about me?"   
  
Faith swiveled and saw Lorne and Fred coming down the stairs. Fred clung to his side, big eyes wide and face tilted to the floor. When she saw Faith, she smiled tentatively and waved a thin hand. Faith half-waved back at the Seer in greeting, not really sure how to respond. The girl made her uneasy to the extreme, but she kinda liked her, in a one crazy girl to another way.  
  
"Yeah, man. You wanna spar with a Slayer?" Gunn said, standing wearily, wincing as he moved.  
  
Lorne eyed Faith up and down and then shrugged. "Sure. If you'll go easy on me. I'm still not quite used to the one-eyed fighting style. I kind of have a blind side."  
  
"That's the exact reason not to go easy, Lorne. Any attacker will use that weakness and exploit it. You must learn to overcome your handicap if you want to succeed." Wesley spoke up from the door of his office.  
  
Faith turned once more to face him, pushing her hair out of her face with one hand. He was wearing the exact same thing he'd worn last night and was looking for all the world like he hadn't slept in a week, even though Faith knew he'd passed out at three-thirty that morning at his desk; she'd checked on him.   
  
"He emerges! What happened? You decide sunlight is a must or something?" Gunn smiled and grabbed up a towel, slinging it around his sweaty shoulders.  
  
Wesley ignored him and walked over to the little fridge behind the lobby desk, pulling out a water bottle and a ham sandwich he had a feeling was Anne's doing. He unwrapped it and took a bite like was he forcing himself every step of the way.   
  
"How's the training going?" Wes asked, sitting down at a stool behind the counter, eyeing Lorne as he got ready to spar with Faith. Fred came and sat down beside him on the floor, just underneath the counter, her hand sneaking upwards to grab the other half of his sandwich out of his hand. Wesley flashed her a smile and turned his attention back to the others.  
  
"Going good so far. Fighting against a Slayer is....well it's kinda scary. No offense Faith." Faith just nodded in ascent and waited for Lorne to come to the center of the lobby.   
  
"Should I bow, jailbird??" Lorne asked in his usual manner, smile lighting up his face.   
  
"Not unless we're at a cotillion." Faith shot back, hands crossed over her chest and her head tilted at an amused angle.   
  
"Ha ha." Lorne said, taking a defensive posture. Faith just stood there, watching him for so long Lorne decided to make the first move. He dove, going for her right hand side. Faith saw the move and sidestepped him, swinging her fist backward. She pulled the blow at the last second so that her fist only lightly tapped the back of his head. Still, Lorne grunted and spun again, going low and footsweeping her.   
  
She jumped the shot and flipped in midair, coming down hard on her knees and rolling as Lorne swiped at her with his leg again. The demon followed her every move, making her jump and dive to avoid the blows that would have connected had she been something less than Slayer-ish. Truth was, she was going easy on him, seeing the weaknesses with a fierce eye and choosing not exploit them. It wasn't really fair.   
  
"Faith!"   
  
Wesley's voice rang out, making her jump and tearing her attention away from Lorne's fist. The demon clocked her, sending her reeling backward against the counter.   
  
"Oh...sorry about that!" Lorne said immediately, rushing over to her. Anger welled in her chest for a moment and then she smiled and shook her head.   
  
"No prob. I was distracted." She turned pointedly around to glare at Wesley. "What was that about?"  
  
"You know what." Wesley snapped back at her and she shrugged. "You were going easy on him. When I told you not to."   
  
"So what? It's just sparring." Faith snapped defensively.  
  
"Yes, but in our line of work we have to one hundred percent all the time and you going easy on Lorne isn't going to teach him anything now is it? Do it right this time. No going easy." Wesley's voice was harsh and cold, making her shake with anger. Who the hell did he think he was?  
  
"Fine. Boss." Faith ground out, turning her back on him and facing Lorne once more.  
  
He attacked again and this time she threw herself into the fight, lunging and diving and taking chances even she wouldn't normally take. Lorne scored twice on her before she knew what was happening. Usually she liked rage and it fueled her, made her stronger and faster, but now it just made her self-conscious. Having him watching her was throwing her off her game and she knew it. She had a feeling he knew it too.   
  
"Stop." Faith stopped immediately, fists clenched at her sides, chest heaving. Wesley walked up behind her and put his arms on hers. She jumped slightly at the contact of his hands on her sweaty forearms. "You're doing it all wrong."   
  
She swallowed hard at his voice in her ear, his chest pressed firmly against her back. "Am I?"  
  
"Yes." Wesley whispered and then lifted his face toward Lorne. "Lorne, attack her using your right fist, and be ready to block with your left. Slow speed."  
  
Lorne nodded and waited.   
  
"And you...do this...." Wesley said softly in her ear, stubbled cheek rubbing against her smooth one as he moved her with his weight in a counter position that brought her hands in a blocking pattern. "Got it?"  
  
"Yeah...I think so." Faith said breathlessly, licking her lips as he took a step back, his hands leaving hers.   
  
"Okay...Lorne?" Immediately Lorne moved in with his right; Faith blocked it and swung in with her left. Lorne blocked the blow and their hands were tangled in the middle. "Stop!"   
  
The two combatants stopped immediately and stepped away from each other. Wesley moved in once again and stood beside Faith. "What now?"  
  
Wesley eyed her and then stepped up beside Lorne and whispered something in his ear. Lorne smiled like a Cheshire Cat and Wesley walked away. "Okay, do that move again, just like I showed you. Real speed."   
  
Lorne moved in with his right, she blocked and swung in with her right. He blocked and before she could untangle herself from him, the demon kicked her in the stomach. She doubled over and stumbled backward. While she was recovering, Lorne swooped in again and kicked her knees, sending her crashing to the floor.   
  
Immediately she flipped to her feet again and moved to attack, but Wesley stepped calmly in her way.   
  
"What the hell was that?" Faith growled, glaring at Lorne just beyond Wesley.   
  
"Don't get pissed at him, I told him to." Wesley said, staring down at her.   
  
"I thought we were just sparring."   
  
"You are, but it's also training. Lorne knows a new move now. Would you like to learn the counter?" Wesley eyebrow arched and Faith just glared at him. Then she sighed and answered him, interested despite her anger.  
  
"Yeah." Wesley smiled and moved up behind her, positioning her in the move with quick hands. He corrected her stance once and then motioned Lorne forward to join her. Lorne kicked out at her in the same move, only slowly this time and Wesley showed Faith slowly how to counter by moving her knee to block and then to jump into a high kick that would move her attacker away for a moment so she could regroup.   
  
Then they did the move in double speed several times until Wesley was satisfied they both had it down. "Good. Both of you." Wesley commented, staring right at Faith as he spoke. "Keep going and don't hold anything back."  
  
And just like that, he turned on his heel and walked back into his office, closing the door behind him. Faith stared after him, the ghost of his hands still on her skin.  
  
"And that, my friends, is why he's the boss." Gunn commented, grinning at the closed door. Faith couldn't help but smile.  
  
*******  
  
Wesley collapsed against the inside of the door, his head throbbing and his heart beating rapidly in his chest. The room spun and the gray world started to seep in on him. Violently, he shook his head and sat down behind his desk.   
  
Even that little bit of physical excercise had been almost too much. Or was it something else? The slide of smooth skin against his and the sweet smell of sweat and vanilla mingling in his nose haunted him. He knew she was beyond that door and he could probably see her if he moved a foot to the right and looked out the big office window.   
  
Calmly, Wesley placed his hands on the desk and tried to stare at the scrolls in front of him. It worked for a second and then he was moving before he knew it, the chair rolling to the right a foot and rewarding him with a clear view of the lobby and the fight going on there.   
  
She moved with a grace he still admired and remembered from years past, wild brown hair unbound and swinging around her face as she kicked a long powerful leg out at the green demon. He silently cheered her as the blow sent Lorne stumbling backward over the low couch. Then Lorne got back up and they went again, circling and scoring on each other every now and then.   
  
Faith was still holding back, but it was only her true power this time. She went for the dirty blows, but didn't let them hit as hard as she could have. Wesley smiled and then it faded as Lorne kicked her full in the face with his boot. Faith reeled and he saw her face darken. A sliver of fear threaded its way up his spine as he watched her; she wiped at her nose, seeing a small trickle of blood there.   
  
He couldn't hear it, but he knew Lorne was apologizing profusely, grabbing a Kleenex box and thrusting it at her. If there was one thing Lorne hated, it was a bloody nose. Faith stared at the demon for a moment and Wesley wondered when she was going to go for the jugular and if Gunn was fast enough to get across the room in time to save the demon from her rage.  
  
And then, she smiled and pulled a Kleenex from the box with a shrug. Lorne smiled back at her and steered her over to the couch like a gentlemen. She sprawled on it in her usual carefree manner and dabbed at the tiny trickle once before throwing the tissue down and taking a drink of water. Gunn moved up beside her and they started talking.   
  
Wesley's shoulders relaxed; he hadn't even realized he'd tensed them up until now. What had he expected? Rage, blood and someone dying bloody, truth be told.   
  
"She really has changed." Wesley murmered and wished he was out there in the lobby talking about whatever the hell they were talking about. That would all have to wait. Time to get back to work and to get his mind off of things he didn't really want to think about right now.   
  
With a sour grimace, he rolled back behind the desk and picked up his pencil.   
  
*************  
  
Setting---Wolfram & Hart, same day  
  
Lilah Morgan was worried.  
  
She was about to have a meeting that she KNEW wasn't going to go well at all. So she took precautions, and still, she was worried.  
  
Now here she was, pacing back and forth across her office floor, expensive Italian heels clacking on the polished marble floor. Suddenly, the intercomm buzzed and she rushed forward, hitting the button immediately.  
  
"Your six o'clock is here, Ms. Morgan."  
  
"Send them in." Lilah said through gritted teeth. She quickly took a seat behind her desk and squared her shoulders. A second later, the door swung open and she had to remind herself of the precautions.   
  
"Angelus, Cordelia."   
  
"Lilah." Angelus drawled, circling her desk and sitting just behind her as he was so fond of doing. Cordelia settled herself in her usual chair and glared at her.   
  
"What have you found out?" She went straight to the point, not feeling the need to fill time with idle chit-chat. Cordelia's eyebrows rose.  
  
"Wouldn't you like to know? Or should I say, wouldn't Morris like to know?"   
  
"Not to put too fine a point on it, yes. We're all very interested in what you've found out about this prophecy. So....?"  
  
"So, it's like this, Lilah. We're not telling you and your little company shit. But you're going to tell us the things we need to know." Angelus's hands snaked up over her shoulders and she shivered.   
  
Lilah gulped and tried to remain calm. She glanced at the clock on the wall. Too soon; time to stave. "Like what?"  
  
"Like what the scrolls say about the world ending, for one. We took documents, but they've just been a pain in the ass. We can't translate them." Cordelia said, tapping her nails on the arm of the chair.  
  
"Really?" Lilah breathed.  
  
"Yeah...but I'm sure you knew that. Didn't you?" Cordelia countered.  
  
"Maybe."   
  
"So, what we need is a translation."  
  
"For what?"  
  
"For the who and the when and where."   
  
"What about the what?" Lilah swallowed hard and glanced at the clock again. Not yet.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"The what. What about the what?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Yes, the what! What about it?"  
  
"What?"  
  
Angelus interrupted with a growl. "Enough of the Abbott and Costello crap! She wants to know if we've figured out what's going to happen to end the world."  
  
"Oh! Well, what else do you think we've been doing all this time?" Cordelia scoffed, hazel eyes wide.  
  
"Turning the Hunter's into an undead army of minions, or so I'm told."   
  
"What can we say? Pitstops are fun." Angelus's fingers dug in slightly. "And besides, after the Slayer killed their leader, they were just sitting ducks. I can't resist a sitting duck. You should know that."   
  
"Faith killed Justine?" Lilah's eyebrow arched. Interesting...  
  
"I guess so. Who knows?" Angelus shrugged and backed away. "Who really cares? I've got bigger fish to fry."  
  
Not yet, she prayed silently. "Ending the world....how does it happen?"  
  
"I told you I wasn't tell you shit, Morgan" Cordelia supplied flippantly. "But I will tell you that our shit demon saw it being stopped."  
  
"And no one wants that." Angelus said, cracking his knuckles.   
  
"Stopped? Really? By whom?" This was blessedly new to Lilah.  
  
"Didn't say, but we don't really need to know that. As long as we find out where and when, then we can stop them from stopping it. Got me? So what do you say, lawyer-lady, wanna give us that translation?"   
  
"I don't have it." Lilah answered, swallowing again and looking at Angelus from the corner of her eye. His eyes darkened, the smug smile sliding off his face.   
  
"And why is that?" Cordelia ground out, her eyes flashing.  
  
"The firm they..."  
  
"I don't give a flying FUCK what the firm did. I WANT THAT TRANSLATION!" Cordelia screamed, standing, the fingertips she pressed to the desk glowing, searing the wood slightly. The outburst was so sudden, even Angelus drew back.   
  
"Company policy states that we will not negotiate with demons. Especially when they use terrorist tactics on their valued employees." She glanced at the clock and nearly smiled. Right on time, she hoped.  
  
"Lilah..." Angelus growled, turning on her. His vampiric face slipped on easily as he glared at her.  
  
"No dice, asshole. I inever/i go against company policy. Bad for my karma." Lilah smiled then, hoping it would egg one of them on.  
  
"Then we're going to have a dead bitch on our hands. I'm through with idle threats. The world is ending and that's fucking final! Got me, Lilah?" The glow continued, reaching out to touch Lilah.   
  
As soon as the glow hit skin, there was a quake and a flash almost as bright as the demoness and then Cordelia went flying, smacking into the wall and sliding down. Her power faded, the air charged, the smell of smoke sharp in the air.  
  
"I'm sorry, but demon violence isn't allowed in the Wolfram & Hart building." Lilah smiled and looked at the clock. Just in time. Thank the Furies!  
  
"You fucking bitch!" Cordelia growled through gritted teeth. The door opened beside her, two large guards strolling in, stakes in hand.   
  
"You and your demon bitch are done here, Angelus. My company doesn't want to see you around anymore. Any attempt to enter the building will result in Cordelia's immediate death. Unfortunately, you're still on the safe list, but I wouldn't tempt me."   
  
Angelus growled at her and moved toward Cordelia.  
  
"You're pressing your luck, Morgan."   
  
"Just doing my job." Lilah shot back at him. "Take them out of here boys."   
  
A stake and a sword were pressed to the backs of the demon and the vampire. Angelus glared back over his shoulder at the lawyer, sitting smugly in her chair. She waved at him and then caught Cordelia's eye.   
  
"You're fucking dead, Morgan." Cordelia said in a low voice, the sword pressing into her back.  
  
"Not for a long time, Cordelia Chase. And I doubt the world ending is going to make it happen." Lilah shot back before the door was closed on the demon's face.   
  
(end chapter)  
  
******************* 


	14. Chapter Fourteen

A/N: Things start happening rather quickly from here on out. Hang onto your butts. ;)  
  
Chapter Fourteen:  
  
Setting---A warehouse in Compton, same night  
  
"I fucking hate her."   
  
"That's the twentieth time you've said."   
  
"Well it's true every damned time."   
  
"You're too tense. How about we relax..."   
  
Cordelia allowed herself a swallow of air as Angelus moved up behind her, his cold fingers digging into her skin, kneading the aching muscles in her neck. His lips followed his fingers, lighting on her soft skin, tongue darting out every few kisses to taste her.   
  
"What do I taste like?" She mused, leaning back against his comforting form. He chuckled in her ear and slid one hand around cup her right breast.  
  
"Like cinnamon."   
  
"And?" Cordelia's eyes closed, his fingers grazing over her nipple, sending electric jolts of pleasure across her skin.   
  
"Sunlight. You've always tasted like sunlight to me." Angelus whispered, slipping his other hand under the hem of her slinky shirt. The muscles of her stomach jumped under his touch and she bit down on her lower lip. All these years and he still made her body excited just by touching her. Still...her mind was elsewhere.   
  
"Sunlight. I miss it sometimes." She whispered, leaning back against him and wrapping her arms around his neck.   
  
"How can you? You can go out anytime you want."   
  
"I don't feel like I can."   
  
"Why?"  
  
Cordelia swallowed hard and closed her eyes again. His hands on her skin suddenly ihurt/i. Everything on her hurt. She wanted it to end, but she'd miss moments like this.   
  
"No reason." She shook her shoulders and turned on him, taking his face gently in her hands and kissing him full on the lips. She pushed him back into the desk chair and straddled his lap, landing soft kisses all along his jawline. Her hands crept down his chest, dipping lower. Suddenly, Angel pulled away.  
  
"Wesley!"   
  
"Pardon me?" Cordelia's eyes went wide. "Why are you calling out Wesley's name when I'm in the middle of getting my freak on?"  
  
Angelus shot her an quelling glare and said, "It's not that! I just had a thought. If you were Lilah, who would you want translating a prophecy?"   
  
"Thank God I'm not Lilah," Cordelia scoffed a moment before she actually thought about what he'd said. Her smile widened as she realized where he was going with this. "Wesley..."  
  
"Who else? It's so obvious, it's scary."   
  
"And lord knows, if Wesley knows we're involved he'll immediately want to help. Shit..." Cordelia pushed herself away from Angelus and paced the floor. "So, if Wesley's doing the translations...then how do we get him?" She traced a hand down across the light burn marks still on her face from his magickal attack on her in the sewer.   
  
"Maybe we don't have to get Wesley. Maybe if we go after someone else, he'll be pursuaded to our way of thinking." Angelus mused, pursing his lips as he watched Cordelia pacing.  
  
She stopped dead in her tracks and turned her gaze to him. "I think I know someone I'd like rip apart, limb by limb."   
  
"Good. Then I know the exact person..er...thing, we need." Angelus smiled, reading her mind in that way he loved doing. Cordelia turned on him with a smile.   
  
"I love revenge."  
  
*************  
  
Setting---The Hyperion Hotel, the next morning  
  
"She's distracting you." Lorne commented from his position near the bookshelf. Wesley looked up from the scrolls, a pencil between his teeth.   
  
"Who?" He asked, spitting the pencil out and glaring at the green demon before him.  
  
"Who do you think?" Lorne shot back, pulling a book off the shelf and plunking down in the seat in front of Wesley.   
  
"I don't know what you're talking about, Lorne. I'm focused on my work." Wesley said, somewhat indignantly.  
  
"I know that, Prince Charming. But you're thinking about her right now." The demon smirked at his boss over the top of the book in his hands.   
  
"Because you brought her up!" Wesley sputtered, running a weary, ink-stained hand through his streaked hair.   
  
"Oh please, I could See you thinking about her in the lobby!"   
  
"You know what, that talent of yours is just....creepy and intrusive. You ever think that not everyone likes you rooting around in their private feelings? It's not ethical." Wesley growled, leaning forward to glare at Lorne.   
  
"I'm a demon: I don't have a code of ethics." Lorne grinned and flipped a page in his book. Things went quiet for a moment and Wesley caught the sounds of Anne and Faith talking in the lobby. Hastily he picked up his pencil and jotted down a note. He got halfway through a sentence when he threw the pencil back down again.  
  
"What do you think of her?" Lorne didn't even look up from his book as he answered.   
  
"She's kind of scary."   
  
"She's what?" Wesley sounded personally offended at his tone. Lorne glanced up at him and corrected himself hastily.   
  
"You know, scary in a my-god-don't-my-breasts-defy-gravity way. Not that I was looking or anything." Lorne grinned and kept going, encouraged by the smile on Wesley's face. "She told me to fuck off this morning when I tried to read her again. Hmm...maybe you're right about that code of ethics thing...."  
  
"Does she umm...I mean, do you think she umm..." Wesley's voice trailed off and he chewed on his lower lip, trying to form the question that was weighing heavily on his mind. Truth was, Wesley didn't know where the hell his mind was. Right now his mind was divided into two categories: Prophecy and Faith. When he wasn't dwelling on one, he was dwelling on the other and there wasn't room for both of them in his head. What he thought he needed to do was purge himself of the one and focus on the other.   
  
"Oh, she umms...completely." Lorne stared him down and glanced back at the office door. "She's a real umm-dinger."   
  
Wesley slapped his hands on the desk. "I mean, do you think she umm...would she be...re-responsive..." He felt his face flush hot and he stuttered a bit.   
  
"Why don't you write her a note and ask her to check yes or no?"   
  
"Lorne."   
  
"Sorry, sorry. I couldn't resist." Lorne chuckled and then grew serious. "I can read you like an open book with neon letters, but Faith...she's a wild card. Whatever's going on in that head of hers, it's complicated. So maybe you should get off your ass and make a move before you lose her."   
  
"Are you implying that I--"  
  
"You know I am. Open book, neon letters. It's so obvious."   
  
Wesley head sank onto the desk and he moaned. "This is so not what I was looking for. Especially with Faith. Things are complicated and our past is..."   
  
"In the past. She's different now and whatever you think she's hiding from you will come out soon."   
  
"You think so?" Wesley lifted his head off the desk and Lorne burst out laughing. With a disgruntled growl, Wes grabbed the yellow post-it note off his forehead.   
  
"I know so. In matters of love and war, I am the King." Lorne threw up his hands and then brought them back down onto the book in front of him. A shadow passed across his face and he grew quiet.  
  
"What's the book for, Lorne?" Wesley asked, picking up his pencil once again.   
  
"Huh?" Lorne looked startled at the question. He glanced hastily down at the ancient tome before him. "Nothing...I was just...looking up something for Fred."  
  
"Oh really? Something to do with a vision?" Wesley was immediately interested.  
  
"Not really...more like getting rid of them." Lorne answered, swallowing hard. Wesley's expression immediately went stone cold, his mouth hardening into a thin frown.  
  
"Fred asked you to look this up?"   
  
"Not in so many words."   
  
"You want to know, don't you Lorne?"   
  
"Maybe I do." Lorne's chin lifted and he glared at Wesley.   
  
"You realize it's not your place to decide such things." Wes stared him down, eyebrow arching as the demon seethed with anger.   
  
"Maybe, but I don't think the PTB knows what the hell they're doing. Giving Fred the visions was...well I've known civil wars that have made more sense!" Lorne hissed at him, trying to keep his voice down.   
  
"But the Powers wanted her to have them---"   
  
"Bullshit! I was there, you weren't! Fred was the closest person to Cordelia when that demon appeared and that's the ONLY reason she got them. If I'd been faster...I would have been closest. I'm a demon, I could handle them! Fred...Fred's...I can feel her slipping away from me every day." Lorne's gaze dropped down to the book and he said quietly, "The visions are killing her and I can't just sit back and watch anymore. I love her Wesley. I love her with everything in me. Once upon a time you did too, remember? Now help me save her!"   
  
"You think I don't care?" Wesley leaned back in the chair and fixed Lorne with his cool glare.   
  
"I think you have other concerns and Fred isn't one of them." Lorne snapped, his lime green hands balling into fists.  
  
Wesley went quiet and then he steepled his hands on the desk, his expression sober. "Find the cure, Lorne. Find it and we'll bring her back to you. I promise."   
  
"Thank you." Lorne stood, the book clutched in his hand so tightly his knuckles were pink. He turned toward the door, but Wesley stopped him.  
  
"You know, King of Love and War, maybe you should follow your own advice."   
  
"What?" Lorne was startled and he glared at Wesley.   
  
"She's not going to wait around forever. Maybe you should make the first move."   
  
"Okay...I don't like it when you do that."  
  
"Do what?"  
  
"Give me advice. That's my job." Lorne grinned and opened the door.   
  
Wesley looked past Lorne and caught a glimpse of Faith in the lobby. "You deserve it."  
  
"Maybe. And maybe you need to get laid." Lorne shot before he closed the door behind him.  
  
Wesley's "Piss off!" was lost to the confines of the office.   
  
**************  
  
Setting---A warehouse in Compton, same day  
  
"So glad you could come."  
  
"And on such short notice."   
  
"Well, I didn't have anything better to do." Angelus smiled at the demon sitting across from him on the floor. His purple-tinted skin was covered in a downy fluff the color of pink roses. Contrasting the girly colors was a huge mouth with razor sharp teeth extending down it's chin. Yellow saliva dripped down the tusk-like teeth and matted into the rosy down on it's chest. The demon looked like some childhood nightmare and in truth, that's exactly what it was.  
  
"Now, you understand exactly what we want right? It's very important." Cordelia said seriously, her long legs crossed elegantly over one another.   
  
"I think I've got it." The demon smiled and the ghastly mouth only grew. Angelus smiled with him.   
  
This was going to be so much fun.  
  
****************  
  
Setting---The Hyperion Hotel, later that night  
  
"EUREKA!"   
  
"What?" Faith's head snapped up as the door to Wesley's office burst open and his came tumbling out excitedly. Everyone turned to look at him waving a piece of paper at them.  
  
"EUREKA!"   
  
"What the fuck does that mean?"   
  
"If it means what I think it means then I'm going to be a very happy girl." Anne commented, watching Wesley intently. "Well?"  
  
"Well...eureka!" Wesley grinned wide enough to crack his face. "I was going about the translation wrong. You see I was cross referencing the scrolls with a Baltic text from the seventh century, which really was unnecessary considering the--"  
  
"Wes!" Gunn interrupted him, throwing up his hands.  
  
"Oh sorry. Anyway, I ran the scrolls through a different book that's written in an ancient form of Babylonian and eureka! Correct translation."   
  
"So what does it say?" Lorne asked, putting his book down and leaning forward.  
  
"There will be four signs of the Apocalypse. A floodgate opened, a birth, a battle of two great armies and a death."  
  
"A birth?" Anne shifted uncomfortably on the couch, her hand raising to her stomach apprehensively. Gunn put his hand over hers.   
  
"It's okay baby, you're not due for another month. I wouldn't worry." Anne smiled at him, but she still looked worried. "So bro, when do you think these will happen."  
  
"That's where I'm not so clear, actually. It could be anywhere from right now to a month from now. It depends on when the signs start to show up. From the moment the first sign appears, it's only approxiametly six hours from then to the end of the world."  
  
"So we want to watch out for these signs, huh?" Faith spoke up, chewing on her lower lip. Wesley turned his gaze on her and smiled.  
  
"Not us." He said firmly, jamming his hands into his pockets.  
  
"What?" Gunn asked, tearing his gaze off of Anne and glaring up at Wesley. "What do you mean, not us? This is what we do!"  
  
"Not this time. Wolfram & Hart are better equiped to handle something of this magnitude. We're just helping them this time." Wesley explained, sitting down heavily on the couch beside Lorne.   
  
"And what if they fuck up?" Charles snapped, his eyebrows furrowed in anger.   
  
"If I know Lilah Morgan, and I think I do, she won't fail."   
  
"But--"  
  
"No buts, Charles." Wesley snapped and stood up. "But...if it makes you feel any better, we'll keep an eye out. Just in case." He turned on his heel and stalked back to the office.   
  
"Where are you going?"  
  
"I'm calling Wolfram & Hart with this information. And if I'm not mistaken, we're all going to get rewarded handsomely."   
"Yay! Money!" Anne said, patting her stomach and smiled over at Faith. The office door closed behind Wesley and Faith was left staring after him.   
  
Lorne and Gunn started talking, but Faith drowned them out. She was suddenly uneasy, for reasons unknown. Her stomach roiled and she frowned.   
  
"Faith? You okay?" Anne leaned forward, touching her knee in concern.   
  
"No...my spider sense is tingling..." Faith stood and turned around in a circle, eyes scanning the top floor above them. "With good reason."  
  
"Do we get complimentary chocolates on our pillows?"   
  
"Oh shit!" Gunn leapt up and turned his attention to the familiar voice at the top of the stairs.   
  
"What? No welcome?" Angelus said, smiling as he walked down the stairs, Cordelia on his arm.   
  
"Yeah, where's your hospitality?" Cordelia grinned and made a motion with her hand. Vampires suddenly swarmed up out of the recesses of the hotel, rushing into the lobby. "Uh-oh...someone's surrounded."  
  
Faith turned her head in all directions and her blood ran cold. She recognized every single one of the vampires. The Hunters stared at her hungrily and Faith felt a tight knot of guilt in her stomach.   
  
Oh God....  
  
(end chapter)  
  
******************** 


	15. Chapter Fifteen

A/N: In the immortal words of Sweet J: "Oh snap!....action sequences are rad!" :D  
  
Chapter Fifteen:   
  
Setting---The Hyperion Hotel  
  
"Thanks for the call, Wes."   
  
Wesley closed his eyes, wondering for a moment why he wasn't hanging up now. "You have all you need?"  
  
"For now. I'll let you know if my company needs your services again. You know Wes...maybe--"  
  
"Goodbye Lilah." Wesley hung up on her, slamming the phone back down on the hook. God he hated that woman and he wondered if---his train of thought was suddenly broken by the sound of many footsteps out in the lobby. "What in---?"   
  
Suddenly, voices rang out and he thought he recognized Anne's scream amongst the shouts. Oh God...what was going on? He ran to the door and peeked out from between the cracks, his eyes widening at what he saw. Vampires were grouped around Faith, Gunn Lorne and Anne. Beyond them, he spotted Angelus and Cordelia standing on the first landing, arm in arm. How the hell had they gotten in?  
  
"We'd like a word with the boss."   
  
Oh shit....  
  
Wesley wheeled and ran to the safe behind the desk; time for the big guns.  
  
*****  
  
Faith eyed the weapon's cabinet ten feet from her. She mentally counted the steps, the number of vampires in the room and the ones within a twenty foot radius to her. Seven running steps, six vampires in her range and twenty in the room. Easy.  
  
"We'd like a word with the boss." Cordelia asked, grinning at her from the first landing.   
  
"What the hell do you want?" Gunn stepped up, eyeing Faith as she glanced back and forth.   
  
"We want Wesley, but we'll settle for carnage and death." Angelus smirked and then looked around at the hotel. "You've redecorated! And here I thought that red paint would never come up."  
  
"Oh good, I like the pre-fight banter. No one has better one-liners than me." Lorne spat, sizing up Angelus. Without thinking, he opened up his psychic channels and probed both the figures on the stairs. He didn't like what he saw. "You want the scrolls."  
  
"No shit, Sherlock." Cordelia shot at them and then turned to Faith. "By the way, Slayer, how do you like our minions? Familiar, huh?"   
  
"Fuck you, Cordelia." Faith ground out, glaring that the demoness.   
  
Anne actually looked at the vampires grouped around them and gasped. She grabbed Charles's arm and squeezed. "The Hunters...oh God Charles. They're all..."   
  
Gunn quieted her with a hand on her shoulder, putting her between Lorne and himself. He shot a glance in Faith's direction and saw her shaking, her clenched fists trembling. He caught her attention and she nodded her head.  
  
"So, how about it? Wesley for your lives?"   
  
"How about a nice big, Fuck You instead?"  
  
"Mmm...sounds tempting Faith, but the last time I fucked a Slayer, it ended badly for me and her." Angelus grinned wolfishly at her and Faith glared at him.   
  
"Leave B out of this." Faith ground out, glancing sidelong at Gunn. He moved up a step and eyed the vampires closest to him.   
  
"Yeah! No B-word." Cordelia snapped, turning on Angelus, a scowl etched across her pretty features. Faith nearly laughed at the sight of Angelus visibly cowed.   
  
"Ball and chain's a little tight, ain't it Angelus?" Gunn smirked, moving another step forward and then taking half a step back as a vampire stepped toward him.   
  
"Okay, I'm sick of this shit! Attack them already!" Angelus waved his hand at the assembled vampires. Immediately, they rushed forward, advancing on the four of them.   
  
Like lightning, Faith launched herself toward the weapon's cabinet. Time slowed and in her mind everyone narrowed down to the fight.   
  
Ten feet to the weapon's cabinet. She darted past three vampires in her immediate vicinity, snapping one's neck as she went and using the body to lever up into the air, slamming her feet into the other two's heads. The vampire fell away from her and she rolled to the weapon's cabinet, her fist shattering the glass and wood as she came up.   
  
She felt glass cut into her, but she ignored it and reached in, two axes and a stake coming out in her fist.   
  
"Gunn!" Faith wheeled and sliced off a vampire's head as he leapt at her, exploding in a shower of ash. Gunn looked up at her from his brawl with two vampires and saw her slide an axe across the floor to him. A duck and roll and he picked it up with one quick motion, coming around in a wide arch to slice off the head of the vampire to his right.   
  
Two down...  
  
Faith was suddenly rammed from behind and she turned, ready to bring the second ax up. She stopped as she recognized Lorne's green face in front of her.   
  
"Oh hey there! Just came for a weapon!" Lorne snatched the ax out of her hand and jumped back into the advancing fray. Faith watched as he sliced off a vampire's hand and then she was lost in the two creatures picking themselves up off the ground. The vamp with the broken neck glared up at her, bone protruding through it's neck. It couldn't move, but was certainly still alive.   
  
The two standing vampires rushed her on either side and she spun out a leg, kicking one full in the teeth before being toppled by the other one. She slid along the slick linoleum, coming face to face with Broken-Neck's snarling visage. The other vampire leapt on her back and snapped at her ears.   
  
Suddenly remembering the stake still in her hand, she brought the blunt butt of it back into Snarly's face and then brought it down in an arch that caught Broken-Neck between the ribcage. She felt the scrape of bone against wood and then coughed in a shower of ash.   
  
Three down...  
  
"Motherfucker!" Gunn's voice was somewhere to her left and she wrenched herself out of Snarly's grip to look in that direction. Her eyes got wide at the sight of Anne back into the corner beside the bathroom door, a mop in her hands, the wooden end being jabbed at six vampires surrounding her. Her eyes were wild with fear, but she was holding her ground. Gunn was desperately trying to get free of the five vampires sizing him up, one on his shoulder, tearing at his black t-shirt.   
  
Quickly Faith calculated the steps to get over to her and the number of bodies she'd have to wade through. She was leaping before she finished the thought, coming down hard on the back of one of them, stake planted firmly between the shoulder blades.   
  
Four...  
  
She was spinning before the ash had even exploded, catching Snarly in the face with her palm as he came at her from behind. Another swing and the stake slid in like butter; she wrenched it out and kicked out a booted heel as other vampires took his place.   
  
Somewhere to her right she heard the whoosh of air and the sound of flesh hitting flesh hard enough to split to the bone, which meant Lorne was up and fighting still. Another whoosh of air to her left.   
  
Six...but her attention was on the vampire circling her. She knew him and shuddered. Fuck. Eric's young face grinned up at her from under a mop of curly blonde hair. She had actually almost liked him.   
  
He snarled and leapt at her; she slammed him back against the wall with ease and brought her stake hand up in an arch. The point went in at an angle, but didn't hit home. At least it didn't until she slammed the heel of her palm against the blunt end, making Eric's features contort with rage and pain a moment before it went gray and wet with ash.   
  
Seven. But with Eric went her stake and now it was improv time. She glanced back at the others and saw Lorne holding one of them onto the floor with his foot, pummelling one with the handle of the axe and swinging it backward long enough to chop at the one attempting to twist his head off. Blood flew, but the vampire stayed upright.   
  
Faith was distracted as she went into a punching match with one big black vampire she thought she recognized. Another hard knot of guilt threatened to choke her, but she forced it away and grabbed the vampire's shirt collar, flipping backwards and throwing the vampire into the broken weapon's cabinet. She hadn't expected anything, but he dusted in front of her eyes and she caught sight of a wooden slat, broken in two and connected to the frame of the cabinet. Lucky shot...  
  
She glanced back at Lorne and saw the axe hack the vampire on the floor's head neatly in two.   
  
Nine dead, eleven left. Not including Angelus and Cordelia, who were....where? Faith punched a vampire in the teeth and turned her head in their direction. They weren't were she expected them to be and she swiveled her head in the direction of the office door. That was when she realized she hadn't seen Wesley in the fight.   
  
Her heart dropped to her knees and she swallowed hard, dropping her guard and allowing a vampire to tackle her in the middle. She was slammed back against the wall before she could move. The vamp reached for her neck, intending to snap it, no doubt, but she clasped her fingers together and pounded them down on the vampire's back, knocking her to her knees. Faith brought her knee up into the vampire's face and felt her nose break. A gush of blood flowed out and Faith kicked out her leg, connecting with the stomach and knocking the female backward.   
  
Without thinking, she reached for the half-broken slat on the weapon's cabinet and snapped it off. She reached for the female vamp and raised the stake. Just as she slammed it home, light exploded throughout the room.   
  
Faith was tossed across the room, rolling as she hit the floor. She was blinded by the light surrounding her. Sound rushed past her ears and she was slammed against something hard, the feel of a body on fire against hers a moment before it exploded. She collapsed in the vacancy and tried to roll and quelch the flames she could feel on her leg. She found nothing but air and that hard surface under body, whatever force in the room pinning her hard against it. The breath flew from her lungs and she tried to make out objects in the whiteness but there was nothing but pain for her eyes. She squeezed them shut just as another explosion rocked the lobby.   
  
Faith was knocked even harder against the solid mass, her head slamming into it with a harsh force. Red warmth danced on her eyelids as she sank into oblivion, not knowing what the hell had happened or if anyone else was alive.   
  
******  
  
Wesley was slammed back against the wall and he slid down it, blinded, his hand scorched and smoking. He heard screams and thought he recognized Faith's shout amongst them. It was cut off by the sound of the office door coming off it's hinges and glass shattering. The desk slid along the floor, pinning him to the wall even more.   
  
His eyes squeezed shut and he prayed the Sol would burn out quickly or everyone in the place would be cooked. Sound rushed past him and he felt the wind whooshing out of him. And then, another explosion as the Sol burned itself out and he drifted into red warmth for several seconds.   
  
The intense light in the room faded and Wes gulped in huge lungfuls of air, his burned hand throbbing, blackened tissue showing on the fingertips where he'd been holding the demon's manifest bottle. He shifted and found he couldn't move. He almost panicked before he used his legs to shove the desk away, the legs scraping against the floor. The sound was deafening after the strangeness of a moment ago.   
  
As he stood up, he heard Gunn's voice calling from the lobby. He swallowed hard and stepped over the broken door, his head spinning a little from being upright. He burst into the lobby and looked around, seeing the piles of dust everywhere, a small smile slowly forming on his lips. It got even wider when he saw all his friends, alive, but battered.   
  
"Anne!" Gunn was the first of the four to get up, his shirt ripped, a gash on his forehead. He ran straight for Anne, who was still clutching her mop for dear life, lying on her side against the wall. "Are you okay?"  
  
"I'm fine. A little bruised, but fine. What the hell happened?" Anne asked as she grabbed Gunn's hand. He helped her up and turned to Wesley.   
  
"That's what I'd like to know." Gunn said, wiping at a speck of ash on Anne's cheek, his hand going protectively to her stomach.   
  
"Sol demon, if I'm not mistaken. I was wondering what you did with it." Lorne said as he climbed to his feet, his back against the red couch, a slash across the breast of his blue shirt.  
  
"What's the fuck's a Sol demon?"   
  
Wesley wheeled to see Faith climbing to her feet, a gash across her cheek and a large welt on her forehead. Her pant-leg was burnt, but the skin beneath was smooth and untouched. She had been laying against the steps to the landing, her black shirt covered in vampire dust. She looked disgruntled and unhappy, her eyes glowing with rage. It took Wesley a moment to find his voice.  
  
"A Sol demon is short-lived entity made of captured sunbeams. They can survive in manifest bottles for long periods of time and quickly disappate once released. Lorne found me one a couple of months ago and I've had it in the safe since then..." His voice trailed off as Faith stared at him, noticing the dust all over her. "Well, it killed the vampires."  
  
"Not all of them."   
  
Wesley's attention swiveled back to Lorn. "Angelus and Cordelia?"  
  
"Last seen heading out the front door and into the night." Lorne said, rubbing his back with one hand.   
  
"Dammit. We had a chance of really getting them this time."  
  
"They wanted the scrolls."  
  
"They didn't get them." Wesley sighed and rubbed his neck with a weary hand.   
  
"I wonder why they left in such a hurry." Gunn said, glancing sidelong at Faith. Something was weighing heavily on his mind. "Maybe they didn't like seeing their new minions getting pummelled by the Slayer who used to work for them."  
  
The comment was pointed and cut straight to the bone. Wesley saw Faith go pale, her eyes flicking back and forth between Gunn and Anne, who were staring at her expectantly. Wesley must have missed something.  
  
"What are you saying?" He started slowly, walking forward and meeting Faith's nervous gaze. "What's going on Faith?"  
  
Faith's mouth opened and closed, her lip trembling slightly. She started to speak, "I, umm...the Hunters--"  
  
"Oh God! Fred!" Lorne interrupted her, rushing toward the stairs as fast as his hurt back would allow him to go.   
  
"She's fine Lorne! The Sol couldn't reach the other floors--"  
  
"Not that! The vampires! They came from upstairs!" Lorne screamed back over his shoulder as he hit the top of the stairs, rushing back into the hallway. Wesley's attention was riveted on the top of the stairs, half-wanting to run after Lorne and half-wanting to grab ahold of Faith before she ran.   
  
As if she could read his mind, he suddenly saw Faith run out the door, moving far quicker than he thought possible for a human being to go. His heart dropped.   
  
"Faith!" Gunn yelled, stepping forward, but Wesley grabbed his arm.   
  
"Let me..." He was running before he finished the sentence, out the door and into the night.   
  
(end chapter)  
  
****************** 


	16. Chapter Sixteen

A/N: Oi. Problems upon problems with writing this chapter. The end is nigh though, I promise. :D  
  
Chapter Sixteen:   
  
Setting---Outside the Hyperion Hotel  
  
Wesley saw Faith disappear around the corner and he quickened his pace, his burned fingers throbbing and that hollow feeling in his chest spreading. He didn't have the energy to run after her, but he needed to and Wesley always did what was needed.   
  
"Faith!" He shouted as he rounded the corner, out of breath and sweating. She was half a block ahead of him and to his shock, she stopped dead in her tracks. She turned around slowly, not even out of breath, her face pale in the lights of the chinese restaurant at her back. "Why are you running?"  
  
He approached her like she was a wild dog, holding out a hand. She looked at it and took a skitterish step backward.   
  
"Faith..."   
  
"Leave me alone, Wesley." Her voice was warning.   
  
"It was the Hunters, wasn't it? That's why you ran."  
  
"No--!"  
  
"That night you came, Angelus and Cordelia attacked the Hunters, didn't they? You ran..."  
  
"No! I didn't!" She shook her head violently and took a step back. Wesley swallowed hard and prayed she wouldn't run; he knew he didn't have the strength to catch up with her this time.  
  
"Faith, it's okay. I understand. You were scared and you ran. Angelus and Cordelia hurt you before and you were scared. I would have been too. It's okay...I understand." He soothed, reaching out to touch her arm. She jerked away from his hand again and backed up against a Dumpster, her chin trembling.   
  
"How could you understand? The things I did to those people. I just left them all because I---I panicked. It was an accident! That look in her eyes...it was just like before..." Her voice trailed off and Wesley stared at her.   
  
"What are you talking about Faith?"   
  
"I killed her." Her voice was haunted, unstable.   
  
"Who?" Wesley insisted, reaching out to touch her. Faith's eyes raised to meet his.  
  
"Justine." Faith said, as if she were trying to convince herself of the truth of it. Her eyes cast downward suddenly, staring at her hands as if she expected blood to be there.   
  
Wesley's heart dropped once more. "Oh God...Faith..." She didn't move away from him as he gathered her up in his arms, her face crushed to his shirt. His hand smoothed over her hair and he felt her shoulders shaking against him. "It's okay Faith."   
  
"It's not okay." She pulled her head up and looked him in the eyes, black trails of mascara around her eyes. "All those people, Wes..."   
  
Wesley got quiet as he studied her face, pushing a strand of hair off her forehead, his fingers lingering on the cut and the red welt marring her complexion. When he spoke, it was barely a whisper. "I once told you that I thought in my heart, that you weren't a bad person. You remember that?" She shook her head and he went on. "That feeling never changed, even after what you did to me. I knew you were confused and blinded by what happened. You were dragged down into darkness because no one cared enough to see it."   
  
"Buffy cared." Faith swallowed and a shadow flitted across her face. "And you, I suppose."  
  
"I did, in my own way. But I was more focused on the importance of my job than the actual handling of it. I think I proved that." A ghost of a smile crossed his lips and then he went serious again. "About two years ago, I was in a bad place. Emotionally and physically. I had no one and nothing to stop me from being the very thing I never wanted to be. And I almost did it because I had nothing in this world. And then, Lorne contacted me and I was drawn back into the family. My family, Faith. They're the most important thing in my life because they saved me."   
  
"Whate are you trying to say?"   
  
"Let me help you. You don't have to be alone anymore. The hurt and guilt doesn't have to consume you this time. What you did to Justine was an accident."   
  
"But the Hunters...I could have helped them."  
  
"Maybe. But you know as well as I that those people choose to fight monsters like Angelus and Cordelia. They knew what they were doing. Whether or not you would have made a difference or gotten seriously killed is something we'll never know. But you can't feel guilty over it or you'll be trapped by it. You have to deal and move on."   
  
"I don't know if I can...it was so hard the first time. I don't know if I can do it a second time." A tear rolled down her cheek and he tenderly brushed it away with his thumb.   
  
"I know you can. I believe in you."   
  
"You shouldn't. I'll only let you down."   
  
"I refuse to let you. I'll torture you if you do!" He actually got a smile out of her and he wiped a fleck of dirt off her cheek.  
  
Her eyes lingered on the scar across his neck, the shadow coming back over her face like a black cloud. "I hated her, but I didn't want her dead."  
  
"I know that feeling Faith. Believe me..."   
  
"I do believe you, Wes." She leaned her head against his shoulder again; he trembled in place at her warmth against his body. "Do you think they'll forgive me?"  
  
"The others? Yes. They know what forgiveness means, trust me. All of us have done something we're not proud of."   
  
"Good. I don't want them to hate me. I like them."   
  
"They like you too. We all do." He caught her eye again as she leaned away from him and he was suddenly aware of the fact that he was still holding her against his body. He swallowed hard as his eyes trailed down her face to her full, soft lips. Lorne's words echoed in his head and he spoke, his eyes softening. "Come back with me, please. I'll protect you."  
  
Her laugh was short-lived as she saw the openess in his expression. He knew she could see other things in there if she looked hard enough. Apparently, she did as she smiled and looked down, licking her lips. She closed her hand over his wrist and turned the burned fingers up to the light. "Your hand is burnt." Faith said, glancing at the scorched digits. He shrugged as he saw the frown on her lips.  
  
"It happens."   
  
"How's the gut wound?" Her hand trailed down is arm and stopped above his waist, where the bandages were still covering the stapled wound. He was surprised she remembered, when he'd almost forgotten it himself. That night seemed like it had happened years ago. In truth, it had only been a couple of weeks.   
  
"Fine. The neck wound?" The feel of her hands on his stomach was searing.   
  
"Peachy. Not even a scar...." Her voice trailed off and she looked back up at him.  
  
"You know Faith, we shouldn't be out here, in case---" Whatever he was going to say was lost as she kissed him. For a moment, he was too shocked to even move. Then he remembered that Faith wasn't the waiting type. She took what she wanted and that was that. Not that he minded, he thought as he finally got his lips moving, kissing her back as hungrily as she was doing to him. His heart soared and he clutched her to him.   
  
No, he didn't mind at all.   
  
*******************  
  
Setting---Outside the Hyperion Hotel, two blocks down  
  
Angelus glanced at Cordelia's watch for the third time in two minutes, pacing back and forth, his expensive Italian shoes crunching on the gravel. Cordelia leaned boredly against the Mercedes, her head thrown back, her eyes squinting to see the stars.   
  
"Is it time yet?" She asked, not bothering to look down at her wrist.   
  
"No." Angelus said, irritated. She looked down at him and smiled.   
  
"Now who's tense?"  
  
"I'm not tense. I'm...excited and aggitated."   
  
"Why is that?"   
  
"You saw that thing Wesley had in there. Who knows what else he's got! I mean, when did he become so magickally-inclined?"   
  
"You're whining! Stop that!" Cordelia grumbled, looking at her long nails. "Besides, they don't have any defenses against our little nightmare demon. There isn't going to be any problem."   
  
"I wish I could be so sure. Why are you all cool and calm?" He turned a suspicious eye on her and she looked up from her cuticle inspection.   
  
"No reason. I'm just feeling confident that's all. Wesley has that translation in there and we'll get it. We take out his most important employee and he'll give us anything we want."   
  
Angelus sighed rather uselessly and sat down on the hood of the car, chewing on his lower lip. A minute went by and then his voice cut through the silence.   
  
"Is it time yet?"  
  
**********************  
  
Setting---The Hyperion Hotel  
  
"Do you think he caught her?" Anne asked, looking up from her work of bandaging Gunn's knee. He smiled grimly down at her and answered.  
  
"The way she was running, probably not."   
  
"Charles...do you think she had anything to do with the Hunters being turned?"  
  
"The way she was running? Probably."   
  
"But you don't think she...delibrately did it or anything...right?"  
  
"I don't know. Maybe she thinks she did. Whatever happened, she feels hella guilty over something. But, I trust Wes to bring her back and straighten things out. Those two have an understanding."  
  
"Those two....well..."  
  
"Well what?"   
  
Anne flushed and finished taping a bandage to to his knee. "Those two are, well... they're cute together."   
  
"Cute? Please tell me you didn't just revert to junior high talk."   
  
"Sorry...I just, I think Wesley needs--"  
  
"To get laid." Lorne supplied from the top of the stairs, and Gunn swiveled to look him. He heaved a sigh of relief at the sight of Fred, unhurt and alert, on his arm. Lorne walked her carefully down the steps, steering her over to the couch cushion next to Anne.   
  
"I was going to say a girlfriend, actually." Anne clipped, motioning for Lorne to take a seat in front of her. He did so and she pulled out a new bandage, going to work on him immediately.   
  
"That works too."   
  
"How are you, Fred?" Anne asked the girl next to her, who was curled up in a ball on the couch, her fingers tracing the grain of the fabric covering the cushion.   
  
"Mm'fine." She answered and went back to humming a nameless tune. Gunn smiled down at her and then paced across the floor.   
  
"You know....maybe I should go after them. More of Angelus's lackeys might have been outside waiting on them."   
  
"Want me to go with?" Lorne asked, looking over at Gunn. He shook his head and walked toward the door.   
  
"No, you stay here with the ladies. I'll be right back, hopefully with one Wesley and his Slayer. Wish me luck."  
  
"Luck!" Fred called after him as he closed the door behind him. As soon as the door was shut, he got an uneasy feeling in his stomach. Shaking his head, Gunn ignored it and headed for his truck.   
  
Almost nervously, he looked around for more vampires and when he didn't see them, he revved his truck engine and took off down the street. He mentally tried to calculate how far a Slayer could run and wondered if Wesley could even keep up. He was betting they were at least six blocks away, if not more by now.   
  
Gunn was still calculating distance times speed (courtesy of too much time with Fred) when he spotted them only a block and half away, standing near the Dumpsters outside Ming Tea. They looked like they were heavy in conversation, Wesley's arms wrapped around her like he was stopping her from running away. Gunn pulled up alongside them and started to get out. He stopped in mid-motion as their lips met.   
  
Charles looked away, not sure whether or not to move and interrupt them or to get back into the truck and leave them alone. Another motorist solved his problem, yelling out of his window, "Get a room!"   
  
The two broke apart immediately and Gunn saw Faith flip the driver off. He chuckled and walked forward.   
  
"Umm...hey..." Gunn greeted them and Wesley turned, smiling sheepishly at him, like he'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "We were worried."   
  
"Oh...w-we were fine." Wesley stuttered, running a nervous hand through his gray-streaked hair. Faith, however, just grinned at him and laced her fingers through Wesley's. Gunn didn't miss the gesture and he had a feeling he was meant to see it. Wesley flushed again, but held on.   
  
"I can see that, bro. Want a ride back?" Gunn gestured toward the truck and Wesley nodded, pulling Faith along with him.   
She resisted immediately and looked Gunn square in the face.   
  
"There's something I need to tell you."   
  
The look on her face stopped him dead in his tracks and made his blood ran cold.   
  
*****************  
  
Setting--Outside the Hyperion Hotel, two blocks down  
  
"Is it time yet?  
  
Cordelia glanced at her watch and her eyes widened. "Yep!"   
  
"Finally! Let's go!" Angelus grinned and slid off the hood of the Mercedes and hopped inside.   
  
"Let's pray your nightmare demon does what he's being payed to do." Cordelia commented, sliding elegantly into the passenger's seat.   
  
"Here's hoping to hell."   
  
******************  
  
Setting---The Hyperion Hotel   
  
Sleep tugged on the corner of her mind and the demon crept along shadows to be by her side when she went. The target was small, frail and mousy. Her lips hummed a tune he didn't know or care to know. She looked delicious and insane and that made his job easier. For a moment there, he'd been worried, the shadows in the room having been sucked away as someone released a Sol demon. But he'd fled upstairs, finding his target and following her, waiting until the designated time to strike.   
  
And now, one small prick and she'd be worth thousands. All he had to do was wait for her to fall into the slumber he was pulling over her. Beside the girl, shifting from shadows to reality and back again, there was a demon and a pregnant human female, talking and nearly oblivious of his presence in the shadows.   
  
Although, he had a feeling the demon was uneasy as he kept glancing over at the target, the hard lines of his face softening whenever his gaze landed on her. He had the sudden urge to take the demon out at the same time, just to make them a neat pair.   
  
Of course, he wasn't being paid for that and it would come out of his own pocket, so it wasn't more than a passing thought. He turned his attention back on the girl and saw her chest heaving shallowly. His sleep-spell had worked and now...it was payday.   
  
He slipped out of the shadows, materializing just as the demon beside the girl sensed him. Too late, the Seer's arm was already in his mouth and the fangs were already inserted, pumping his poison into her system and making her whimper as he did so.   
  
"Rattlesnake teeth..." She moaned and then screamed as the world erupted in a floodgate of visions.   
  
He pulled his fangs back out and dematerialized, just as the demon reached for him. His corporeal self was sucked back into the nearest shadow and he watched in fascination as his employers walked through the door like they owned the place.   
  
"Fred!" The demon screamed as the girl thrashed on the ground, screaming like she was dying. Which she probably was, the demon rationalized.   
  
"What's the matter, Fred? Don't like the marathon visions? I didn't either." Cordelia said, bending low over the thrashing girl and spitting on her. "That's what happens when you take imy/i gift..."  
  
"You fucking bitch!" The demon leapt at her and was rewarded with a hard smack across his cheek that sent him flying.   
  
"Now, where's Wesley?" Angelus asked, holding pregnant female around the neck. The demon wondered if he would snap her neck or do something else equally horrific and brutal.  
  
"He's not here."   
  
"Not here?"  
  
"No...he's...he left." The female sputtered, clutching her stomach in fear, her pale blue eyes wide. "Please don't hurt me..."   
  
"I wouldn't hurt you! What makes you think that?"   
  
"Years of experience?" The green demon quipped, getting up from his sprawl on the floor.   
  
"Shut up, Lorne." Cordelia snapped, kicking him again. The demon moaned and slumped against the wall, rivers of pain shooting up and down his spine.   
  
"Wesley's not here? Well that ruins our hostage situation plan...shit. I was kinda liking that one too. Now we'll just have to settle with taking the translations and leaving you all dead!"   
  
"What did you want?" Lorne asked, his nose bleeding and his lip cut.   
  
"Earlier? Oh that was just a diversion. Guerilla tactics, hit them from the front and then sneak something in from the sides. You'd think Wesley would know better. But no..." Angelus answered, whispering the last two words in Anne's ear. He licked her neck and then called out to Cordelia, who was sizing up Lorne again. "Go get the translations."  
  
Cordelia kicked the injured demon in the face and then disappeared into the office for several minutes. When she re-emerged, she had a huge, awed smile on her face.   
  
"What's up, kitten?"   
  
"Screw the translations. I've found something much, much better." Cordelia said, holding up a huge, glowing obsidian stone. It bathed her feline features in an eerie glow, an evil, bone-chilling smile lighting her face. "I know how to end the world."   
  
(end chapter)  
  
*********************** 


	17. Chapter Seventeen

A/N: I have the whole story finished now (finally!!!!) I'm going to post a chapter a day so as not to overwhelm. Thanks for coming along on the wild, and disgustingly long, ride. Nothing I've ever written has taken this long to write (I started it at the beginning of MAY..sheesh). Anyhoozle, enjoy and thank you immensely for the feedback!   
  
Chapter Seventeen:  
  
Setting---The Hyperion Hotel, 11:50pm  
  
Faith's blood ran cold as she stepped in the scream-filled lobby, Wesley's hand in hers going cold and limp. Her stomach dropped and she felt Gunn step in behind her, his shoulder brushing hers. Shock radiated for a moment and then, with the crack of a whip, the room exploded.   
  
Anne, laying on her side, her face a rictus of pain, was splayed against the stairs, her bloodied hands clutched to her massive belly. She was whimpering and trying to move, the broken end of a long spear jammed into her shoulder. Three feet away, Lorne was an unconscious lump, a trail of blood showed that he'd moved about three feet toward Fred before he'd passed out. Faith's eyes trailed over to the thrashing Seer and she swallowed hard. The girl was the source of the noise that filled the lobby, her body bruised from her collisions with the floor, nose and ears bleeding.   
  
Faith saw all this, her stomach lurching...knowing. It was all her fault.  
  
Charles rushed past her into the room, sliding in a puddle of blood and another liquid Faith's blurring eyes couldn't identify. Wesley dropped her hand and did the same, falling to his knees before a mass of thrashing limbs.   
  
"Oh God..."   
  
"Faith!" Wesley's voice seemed a million miles away and it echoed thickly in her ears. "Faith!"  
  
She blinked to clear her vision and stared stupidly at Wesley. "I.."  
  
"Call an ambulance! Anne's in labor!" Wesley tried to hold down Fred's thrashing arms and check on the unconscious demon next to her at the same time. "Faith! Now!"  
  
His voice broke under the weight of his emotions and that's what snapped her out of it.   
  
"Okay." She ran to the phone behind the desk and dailed 911, speaking breathlessly to a woman with a soothing voice that only grated on her frazzled nerves. She hung up and turned back toward Wesley. "They're coming."   
  
"What happened?" Charles asked, his fingers twitching and his eyes roving over the bloody wound on his wife's shoulder like he wanted to do something and didn't know what. Faith knew that feeling all too well.   
  
"Angelus and C-cordelia....they had some kind of thing...it, oww! It attacked and then they came...." Anne puffed, her teeth clenched as she grabbed onto Gunn's hand, squeezing her pain. "They wanted the translations...and..."  
  
"Shhh..baby...it's okay." Gunn landed a kiss on her forehead and looked entreatingly over at Wesley. The Englishman was already turning his stoic gaze back on the thrashing girl in his arms.   
  
"Faith...come here!"   
  
She did as she was told, her throat tight with emotion as she stood over Fred's thrashing, screaming body. There was so much blood....  
  
"RATTLESNAKES!! RATTLESNAKES!!"   
  
Faith wanted to shut out the sound of the frightened Seer screaming, but it wouldn't stop. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Charles talking to an amazingly calm Anne. His wife was breathing in hitches, obviously in pain; from the stab wound or the labor, Faith wasn't sure.   
  
"Get down here! Hold her down!" Wesley commanded, his eyes bright, his jaw set. There was murder in the blue orbs and Faith was chilled by it. She dropped to her knees beside the Seer and gathered the girl up in her arms. Slayer strength exerted, the girl's arms were stilled, but her screams kept coming.   
  
"What's wrong with her?" Faith asked, swallowing hard.   
  
"She's having a vision...several visions." Wesley clipped, turning toward's Lorne's body and rolling him over. Faith flinched away from the sight of his bruised face and tried to still Fred's screaming with a hand to her mouth. It didn't work and she pulled it away, staring numbly down at the blood smeared across her palm. "Is he dead?"  
  
"No...he's just unconscious. Most of this blood isn't his." Wesley answered brusquely, gesturing for Charles to come to him. He left Anne's side reluctantly and helped Wesley carry the demon over to the couch. "Hold her. I'll be right back."  
  
He disappeared into the office and when he came out again, he had a syringe in his fingers. "Hold out her arm!"  
  
Faith grabbed the Seer's thin wrist in her hands and pulled a thrashing arm straight out. Wesley stopped in mid-motion and narrowed his eyes at two puncture wounds on the crook of Fred's arm. It was livid with inflamed tissue, a blackish tint to the skin.   
  
"What the hell? I...give me her other arm..." Faith did so, wincing as Wesley jammed it into the flesh. The screaming continued and tears mingled with the blood. Slowly, the limbs crushed beneath hers relaxed until the girl didn't move and her voice petered out into a numb whimper.   
  
"Carry Lorne upstairs." Wesley commanded, scooping Fred up into his arms and staggering up the steps. Faith did as she was told once more, the weight of the tall demon barely noticeable as she walked upstairs, following Wesley. She kicked in the door to Fred's cave-like room and placed the demon on the bed. Fred was placed on a padded mat in the corner, a pair of shackles snapped over her wrists.   
  
"What about the ambulance? They need medical help..."   
  
"Lorne's a demon and Fred is beyond their help. They're better off here." Wesley's jaw was working back and forth and she flinched as he glanced over at her. He looked away and wiped blood off of Fred's face with the edge of his shirt.  
  
"What's going on, Wesley?"   
  
"It's the prophecy."   
  
"What?"  
  
"A floodgate," He gestured to whimpering, dazed Fred, "And a birth. It's started, Faith."  
  
"Floodgate?"   
  
"The visions. They're not stopping and something was definately injected in her system." Wesley squeezed his eyes shut and then opened them again.   
  
"And the other signs?"  
  
"The battle of two great armies and a death."   
  
"When do those happen?"  
  
"Anytime from now until dawn."   
  
"Great."  
  
"Hey!" Gunn ducked his head into the room and they turned their attention toward him. "The ambulance is here. I'm going with them. How are they?"   
  
"They'll be fine! You go and we'll catch up with you when things are stable here, okay?"   
  
"Okay. I'll call as soon as we get there!" He ducked his head back out and they listened to his footsteps fade.   
  
"Do we have a big fight coming up?" Faith asked after a moment, her stomach dropping.  
  
"I'd say yes." Wesley turned back to Lorne's limp body on the bed and reached for the medical kit they kept on the dresser.  
  
"Then...don't we need Gunn?" Faith stepped forward, chewing on her lower lip.  
  
"No." Wesley turned back on her and grabbed her forearms in a crushing grip. "Anne should have him there. She needs him, we don't."   
  
"What about...?"  
  
"It's just us, Faith." Wesley snapped and stared intensely down at her. "Just us. We're going to stop the world from ending. You and me."   
  
"Okay, I get that. Slayer equals stopping the end of the world. But what are we doing to do?" Faith snapped right back, jerking her arms out of his grip.   
  
"I've got a plan."  
  
"Oh good. Let me guess, does it involve you and me?"   
  
"And me!"   
  
Faith and Wesley turned on the new voice, hearts in their throats.   
  
*************  
  
Setting---A warehouse in Compton, 12:30am  
  
"Why didn't we kill them?" Angelus commanded for the third time that minute. Cordelia ignored him and went back to reading the paper in her hands. She recognized Wesley tidy scrawl and smirked. Always had to be so goddamned detailed, didn't he? "Cordelia?"  
  
"We didn't kill them because we didn't have time. Besides, they'll be dead in a few hours anyway."   
  
"True, but..." Angelus paced the floor of the office, glaring down at the demoness in his chair. She had a jagged smile on her lips, one that sent chills down his spine.   
  
"But what? Getting cold feet? Isn't this what you do, end the world?" Her eyes were hot as she glared up at him. He glared back at her and clenched his fist.   
  
"Of course it is, but we can't leave loose ends. I should have killed them."   
  
"I wouldn't worry about it. There is no way we can go wrong. The world is ending and they can't stop it."   
  
"Are you forgetting what that shit demon Saw?"   
  
"Of course not, but I was a Seer, remember? I know for a fact that not everything forseen comes to pass, Angelus. You know that too. Which is why my little plan here will be succeed. Don't forget, according to Wes there are two more signs to come to pass. We should give them a little help, don't you think?"   
  
"What do you mean?"   
  
"I mean, it's time the Hunters got to work."   
  
"What about us? We need somewhere safe to do this at." Angelus ground out, fighting the urge to punch the wall. He didn't like this, for some reason. Things felt off.   
  
"I know the perfect place to go. No one will ever find us there."  
  
**************  
  
Setting---The Hyperion Hotel, 12:40 am  
  
"No one called you here, Lilah. Leave." Wesley barked, stepping forward, fire almost shooting out of his burning eyes. Faith looked between the two of them, vaguely recognizing the woman.   
  
"Face the facts, you need me Wes. Besides, we agreed that you were only going to handle the translation part of the prophesy. Stopping it is my area."   
  
"It's my people on the line here. Anne and Fred--"  
  
"Are casualties of war. We need to focus on the larger picture here. And I have the resources to do that, you don't." Wesley just glared at Lilah and she sighed. "Wesley, do you really think you have choice here? We can help each other, so get the rod out of your ass and let's get to work."   
  
"As much as I'd hate to agree with the bitch, she's right."   
  
Faith swiveled and stared as Lorne lifted off the bed, his green face a mass of black bruises. "Lorne!"   
  
"Yeah, it's me Slay-gal. How's my Fred?" Lorne scooted off the bed and stood, wavering on his feet before, crossing the room and kneeling down before Fred's whimpering form.   
  
"She's...it's not looking good, Lorne. I think Angelus and Cordelia did something to her. I'm not sure what."   
  
"They had a demon with them. I got a good look when it injected her with it's poison. I think I've seen it before in one of our books..." Lorne said, smoothing a trembling hand over Fred's forehead. He looked like he was about to break in two.   
  
"You should go look it up."   
  
"I'm not leaving her." Lorne choked out, fixing Wesley a harsh glare.  
  
"I'll go get them for you." Faith offered, walking quickly past Wesley. She shouldered Lilah out of the doorway with a grunt and took off down the stairs. Entering the office, she ignored the pools of blood on the floor and grabbed up an armload of Wesley's research books.   
  
When she went back upstairs, she stopped before the doorway to Fred's room. She could hear Wesley and the lawyer bitch arguing. "Bullshit! I know Cordelia and Angelus much better than you! I can predict their moves!"   
  
"What? I've been their enemy much longer than you have Wes. Trust me when I say they're going to try something to divert our attention."   
  
"Well you don't--"   
  
"HEY!!" Lorne's voice made Faith flinch and she listened intently as he went on. "Forget your fucking personal problems. Fred, and the rest of the world, are going to die unless you both work together. So get off your high horses and shut the hell up! Lilah, get your Wolfram and Hart commandos and wait for our signal. Wesley, you and Faith are going to go after Angelus and Cordelia. I know you both want them bad."   
  
Faith was taken aback. Lorne was quite the leader when he was pissed. Maybe this was what Anne had been telling her about him.   
  
"What about you?" Lilah snapped, obviously not liking taking orders from the demon.   
  
"I'm going to kill that whatever got Fred." Lorne snapped as Faith opened the door and walked into the room, dumping the books before him. "I think I know what book that demon was in..." Faith watched as he flipped through the pages of a red leather-bound tome. It didn't take him long before he found what he was looking for. "Good. The thing carries the antidote to it's own poison."   
  
"Well then..." Lilah said, turning to Wesley, a smug grin on her face. "What are we waiting for? Let's save the world!"   
  
"Piss off Lilah." Wesley muttered, walking past her down the stairs. Faith followed, glancing behind her to see Lorne tenderly kiss Fred on the lips before strolling out of the door, Lilah right behind him.   
  
"Sure, BOSS. Let me just call my office and get the--" Lilah's voice was cut off as her cellphone rang just as she reached the last step. She snatched it out of the pocket of her smart suit and flipped it open. "Lilah Morgan."   
  
Faith barely paid attention as she walked over to the weapon's cabinet and selected a heavy broadsword from the stand. Wesley moved up next to her and grabbed his own sword and a repeating crossbow.   
  
"Faith...I.." Wesley started, unsure of what to say to the Slayer. He wanted to tell her to be careful or to kiss her one more time before they went into battle. Because truth was, Wesley didn't think he was going to make it through the night. Too much on too little was taking it's toll. He didn't have the strength to fight tonight, not after what had already happened. He was going down and he knew it.   
  
"Shut up Wesley."   
  
"I beg your pardon?"   
  
"Don't say it. Anne told me what you've been doing to yourself and I know you're d...sick." She choked on the word dying and grabbed his hand. "We make it through tonight, then you can say whatever you want to me. I promise you that whatever happens tonight, I will not let you kill yourself. I'll be right there with you."   
  
"But I have to kill them. It's my duty; I started this whole thing."   
  
"And I'm going to finish it. Remember me? Slayer? It's what I do. And you're my..." She took a deep breath and looked up into his eyes. "You're my Watcher and that's what you're going to do. You're gonna to watch me kick ass." Faith grinned at him and kissed him hard on the mouth for two seconds.   
  
"I'd hate to interrupt this little declaration of love or whatever--oh wait, I do!" Wesley turned his attention back toward Lilah and saw her standing with her arms crossed, her face unusually pale. "We've got some activity."   
  
"What do you mean?" Lorne asked from his perch on the stairs. Wesley rounded on him and knew immediately what the demon was doing. He was trying to hone in on the waves the nightmare demon had left behind so that he could track it. Wesley was amazed, and not for the first time. He remembered when Lorne would refuse to use his unique abilities for that purpose. Now, he had no qualms about doing it.   
  
"I mean, the Hunters have just attacked Wolfram & Hart." Lilah's voice was calm despite her pale face. "I've ordered the special ops team to deploy. They should be there right about now."   
  
"Shit..." Faith said, tossing a crossbow at the lawyer and watching as she fumbled to grab it. "Looks like this is gonna be easier than we thought. Let's go."   
  
"Lorne?" Wesley said, turning back toward the demon. Lorne looked up and waved him off.  
  
"I'll be fine, don't worry." Wesley nodded and chased after his Slayer and Lilah, praying like hell that tomorrow would come.   
  
(end chapter)  
  
************ 


	18. Chapter Eighteen

A/N: Shortish chapter with lots going on.  
  
Chapter Eighteen:   
  
Setting---The Hyperion Hotel, 1:20 am  
  
Lorne watched the other three go out the front door of the hotel and then stood up. He'd locked on the waves the demon that had attacked Fred gave off. He nearly laughed. Three years ago, he would never have thought of using his powers like this. Back in Pylea, he'd resisted the training because he'd seen the sacred jousts from both sides. Lorne was well aware of his Switzerland nature and he didn't mind.   
  
And then, he'd met Wesley and everyone and they'd changed him. He'd had a family and he'd clearly chosen a side, something he'd never thought he would do. And after everything had gone to hell in a handbasket, leaving him with Fred, he'd had no choice but to use his powers like they were meant to be used. Goodbye music, hello violence.   
  
And it was all for Fred. Everything he did was for her and he wouldn't have it any other way. She was his hope and he wasn't going to let her die because of Angelus and Cordelia. He'd lost an eye to them already and he wasn't going to lose her. Not today, not ever.   
  
Getting up from his seat on the stairs, he stretched, grabbed his favorite axe and smiled at his mirrored reflection in the glass on the doors. He was about to kick ass and do it in style. Krevlorneswath of the Deathwok Clan always did it in style.   
  
He left the hotel, glancing back at the hulking white mass and praying he'd make it in time to save her. He didn't think she could stand that many visions for long.   
  
He prayed she was strong enough to last the night.  
  
***********  
  
Setting---Wolfram & Hart, 1:35am  
  
The battle was already raging when they arrived. Wesley scanned the courtyard in front of the law firm and saw several piles of ash and a few fallen human bodies. Bile rose in his throat and he grasped his weapon tighter in his hand. This was bad, very bad. At least they had the commando guys here, which was a huge help because the ninety or so Hunter's out on the makeshift battlefield were a force to be reckoned with.   
  
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lilah with her cellphone attached to her ear, barking orders to someone across the street. There was an explosion off to his right suddenly and he was knocked to his feet. Faith immediately loomed over him, helping him up with a concerned look on her face.   
  
"Don't poop out on me yet, Watcher. We've got a big night ahead of us." She said, clutching his hand in her own with more strength than was absolutely necessary. "Be right back...this is too good to resist."  
  
"Wait...Faith..." Wesley grabbed her arm and pulled her back, kissing her quickly on the lips. He pulled away and she grinned up at him. "Be careful. I still need you."  
  
"Don't worry about me, Wes. I'll be right back..." Faith said, kissing him once more. Then she let go and ran across the street, feet kicking and arms punching with a fury he wasn't sure was humanly possible. All around her, black clad commandos were holding their own with the Hunters. It was clear both sides were well trained armies... Even as Wesley finished that thought, it suddenly hit him like a punch in the gut.   
  
The third sign. The battle of two great armies. The Hunter's and Wolfram & Hart's elite team. Wesley's blood ran cold and he swayed on his feet. That left one last sign. He calculated the time up in his head. Things were going too fast. Much faster than his calculations had indicated. Had he made a mistake?   
  
According to the numbers he'd run, the Apocolypse should happen about six hours after the first sign occurred. But what if he'd been wrong? He could have been off, which meant they needed to get to Angelus and Cordelia NOW.   
  
Wesley rushed into the battle, heading for the first vampire he saw. He prayed this one would know what he needed or they were all fucked. He grabbed it around the throat and threw it against the wall, sparks swimming across his vision. He needed Faith for this, but he was too damned stubborn to call her over.   
  
"Where are Angelus and Cordelia?"   
  
"Not telling!" The vampire spat, yellow eyes burning. Wesley vaguely recognized the vampire and thought her name was Amy. He couldn't be sure and he didn't really care.   
  
"I think you'd better." Wesley placed the blade of the sword to the vampire's neck and dared her to move. "Tell me or I'll kill you."  
  
"You're going to do it anyway..." Amy or whomever she was spat back at him, lifting her neck up, inviting him to slice through her.   
  
"True, but you might as well make yourself useful before I do it." Wesley smiled and increased the pressure on her neck. "I know you know where they are."  
  
"Yo, Amy. Why don't you just tell him?" Faith said, coming up behind him, her chest heaving and sweat running down her forehead. There was ash smeared across her cheeks.  
  
Amy hissed at her and bared her teeth. "Fuck you Slayer! Even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you shit!"   
  
"Fine then, kill her." Faith was rewarded by an explosion of ash as Wesley's sword severed the vampire's head from it's shoulders. "Crap...guess we'll have to grab another one."  
  
"Yes...I.." He moved to step forward when something inside of him struck, making him sink to his knees. Faith rushed to his side and tried to help him up, but he waved her away.   
  
"Are you okay, Wes?"   
  
"I'm fi--" His response was lost in a moan as the feeling redoubled. He suddenly felt that empty feeling in him twang like a harp string, stretch tight and then twang again. The hollow in his chest expanded and threatened to choke the life out of him.   
  
"Wesley? Wesley???" Faith screamed in his ear as if he couldn't hear her. She was panicked, her face pale and her hands shaking as she held him upright. "What's going on?"   
  
But Wesley was lost in the tugging feeling in his soul, pulling him willy-nilly northward. Flashes of sand and the sea came to him and he gasped, the feel of sand spilling from his mouth, heavy and thick. Seawater swirled into his lungs and he coughed, trying to grasp onto the shore. All he found were Faith's arms around him.   
  
"Wesley?? Please be okay...come back to me!" Faith all but screamed at him, pleading, her face white as a sheet. Wesley gasped and looked up at her. He blinked several times and felt the pulling grow stronger.   
  
"I know where they are...."   
  
**********  
  
Setting---Wolfram & Hart, 2:20am  
  
Lilah shot the crossbow in her hands and was satisfied by a whooshing sound as the vampire turned to dust. "Haha! Got you, ya son of bitch!"   
  
"Good one, Miss Morgan."   
  
Lilah turned on her heel and regarded Leonard Morris with a weathered eye. "Thank you sir." Morris ignored her and surveyed the courtyard before the office building with an amused expression. "Well?"  
  
"Well what?" Morris turned an arched eyebrow her way. "Well the Apocolypse is happening? Or well, I don't know where Angelus and his demon bitch are? Or, well, I have no clue where Wyndam-Pryce and the Slayer have gone?"   
  
Lilah blanched and looked around the still-violent battlefield. In the fight, she hadn't noticed where the two had gone; she'd been more occupied with staying alive. Now that things were calmer, she could afford a look around, grimacing as she saw splashes of blood everywhere and no few of her troops down and out for the count. "Shit."  
  
"Deep shit, actually Lilah." Morris smiled. "You know what we talked about."   
  
"Yes sir." Lilah licked her lips, remembering all too well the conversation that day. She knew that Wesley was going to kill Angelus and Wolfram & Hart couldn't have that. He died, then Lilah died---it was part of her contract. She was going to have to stop them. "Consider it done."  
  
She started to walk away, toward the nearest alive vampire. If they knew anything, then Lilah would get it out of them. "Oh Miss Morgan?" Lilah stopped and turned her attention back on her boss. "Make sure you stop the prophecy in the process. That is our number one goal."  
  
"But sir...I'm not sure.." Lilah stammered, unsure of how she was going to stop Wesley and Faith from killing Angelus without stopping them from destroying the world. Her head nearly spun as she thought of it.   
  
"Make it happen. Or you're dead."   
  
"Yes sir." She turned around once more and headed back onto the battlefield. She stopped dead in her tracks as she spotted a hauntingly familiar head of red hair hidden in the shadows, a vampire in her hands.   
  
What the hell?  
  
**************  
  
Setting---Wolfram & Hart, 2:30am  
  
Justine tried not to break down as she stared at the vampire in her hands. She recognized him and tried to pretend that she didn't. In fact, she'd nearly ran the other way when she's followed the police scanner's reports about the battle. To see so many people she had once cared for being stricken down like...like the vampires they were, disgusted her.   
  
She wanted to kill the ones responsible for this and she knew exactly who to blame. She'd been waiting long enough, waiting for the damned prophecy or whatever to come to pass so she could kill every last one of them. So she could complete Daniel's work and her own. Now it was happening and she was ready, despite the sick feeling in her stomach. She knew it was right.   
  
Without the mission, there was nothing in this life for her.   
  
So now looking into the face of the bleeding, wounded vampire in her hands, her back screaming in pain, she forced her sorrow away and turned into the cold bitch she knew she could be. "Where are Angelus and that bitch of his?"   
  
"Justine?"   
  
"Tell me, Michel!"   
  
"Thought you were dead, man!"   
  
"I am dead...now tell me..."   
  
"Overheard them talking. They said something about going to doom or something, I think. Shit, if you're dead why didn't you join up? The Hunter's..." Blood frothed out of Michel's jagged mouth and Justine noticed he had a stake crammed into his back, probably right above the heart. He was clinging to un-life, only he didn't know it.   
  
"The Hunter's are dead, Michel. And now...so are you." Justine jerked the stake downward and grimaced when it connected with the still tissue of his heart. Michel turned to dust in her hands and she felt her stomach lurching. Fuck...this was getting harder and harder to do.   
  
"Doom? Doom...Point Dume? How fucking ironic. And perfect for what I want." Justine said as she wiped the dust from her fingers. Looking around at the battlefield, she smiled. Soon, everything would be righted and the world could go on.   
  
They would all die and her work would be done. She took off northward, towards the shore, never noticing the dark-haired woman following her all the way.  
  
(end chapter)  
  
*************** 


	19. Chapter Nineteen

A/N: Remember that in this AU, nothing after "The Price" happened, so that whole Point Dume meeting never occurred...er...never was supposed to occur. :D  
  
Chapter Nineteen:   
  
Setting---Point Dume, 3:00am  
  
Cordelia circled the pentagram drawn in the sand and eyed the center of it with an expert eye. The obsidian stone was neatly placed in the middle atop a mound of red powder. She couldn't help but smile as she looked over the setup. It was beautiful and oh so deadly.   
  
The spell Wesley had written down was very simple and even she could do it. The only thing that bothered her was the fact that it took a while for the stone's power to build. You had to go through three steps in order to complete the spell and there was a big build-up of energy between each one. Of course, that was just like Wesley, she thought. Slow as hell to get started and once he did, it was all a disaster. The first step, activating the energy inside, was already finished. The second step was iniating the actual spell and the third was, well...ending it all.   
  
Glancing over at Angelus, she saw him pacing the circle, a sword in his hands. He was expecting trouble and Cordelia wanted to laugh. There was no way in hell this was going to be stopped. No one could track them here; hell they hadn't even told their minions where they were going. No, the world was going to end and her pain would go with it.   
  
"Are you done?" Angelus called, shaking her out of her thoughts. She walked like she hadn't a care in the world over to him. She kissed him, imagining she was in the past and back where the world was right and she was whole. When she pulled away, she smiled up him.   
  
Angelus, she knew, had no worries and no conscience. His nature was to destroy and he relished in it. She envied him more than a little and not for the first time. Her nature had changed since that horrible night she'd lost her soul and her visions. Despite the lack of her soul, there was still something lingering in her. Pain and guilt, knowledge of what she had done to everyone she had loved. She'd ruined them all and she knew it, just as she knew that this was her real punishment. She'd asked the Gatekeeper for something she had no right to and he'd punished her the best way he knew how; by making her live with the pain. And she couldn't live with it any longer. She wanted to end it all.   
  
"Yes. Ready?" Angelus nodded and then grabbed her up, kissing her hard on the lips. Cordelia felt his hunger and matched it. This would be the last time she'd look at that angelic face and feel him against her lips. It almost made her want to stop, but not quite. This all had to end.   
  
He pulled away and brushed his thumb over her lip. "I love you Cordelia. I always have."   
  
"I love you too." She said, not meaning it because as much as she wanted to believe she did love him, she couldn't. He wasn't the one she wanted. It was his face, but not even close to the man she'd fallen in love with and destroyed. He smiled that rich smile at her words, his eyes lighting up. "Let's do it."  
  
Then, she slid away from him and approached the circle, her hands raised, the short incantation she'd memorized spilling from her lips with ease. It was so simple, she couldn't believe ending the world could be so easy, but it was. She wondered, as the obsidian began to glow, if Wesley knew what he'd been doing when he started collecting energy for the spell. It was all his fault. His and hers; so what was new?  
  
She shouted the last line of the incantation, her head thrown back to the starry sky, her smile filling her face up. She loved this place and she wanted to go out here. It seemed so perfect. A single tear rolled down her cheek and that was all she showed of her emotions.   
  
Cordelia looked back down at the obsidian and saw it glowing, pulsating with energy. A halo surrounded it and sparks of white-hot electricity arched through the air. Overhead, she saw the stars were slowly being blocked by roiling clouds, heat lightning mirroring the stone's sparks.  
  
"Now what?" She turned toward Angelus and was about to answer when something came hurtling out of the shadows, knocking her to the sand. She looked up through a mass of hair and saw Faith's dark eyes glaring at her.   
  
"Time's up, bitch!"  
  
*******************  
  
Setting---somewhere under L.A., 3:00am  
  
Lorne was sweating, covered in sewer water and tired. Every bone in his body ached and still he kept going because he had to. It was for Fred and he would not, could not stop. It helped that the demon's karmic echo was getting stronger as he went along, tracking it through the extensive tunnel system that ran through Los Angeles. It also helped that he'd come to know the tunnels fairly well in the three years he'd been fighting the good fight.   
  
Up ahead, he heard a noise that made him stop and listen, head cocked to the side.   
  
PING-PING!  
  
Something was banging down in the tunnels ahead of him, something large. Lorne silently hoped that it wasn't some other big demon looking for a meal. That was all he needed. Lifting the axe in his hands, he stalked along the damp brick tiles toward the T-split in the tunnel, every nerve on fire.   
  
As he stepped into the junction, his eye widened. Some sort of strange, shadowy nest stood before him, almost spiderweb in appearance. And in the center of the thick black web was the nightmare demon.   
  
"Hello beautiful...remember me?" Lorne drawled, eyebrow arching as the demon turned it's ghastly head his way. The long fangs dripped down it's pink and purple chest, an acidic pool at it's feet.   
  
"How's the Seer?" The demon responded, jumping down, it's human like paws hitting the ground with a wet thump. "She dead yet?"   
  
"Not yet. You know why I'm here?"   
  
"Sure do."   
  
"How much did they pay you?"  
  
"Come on, you know a demon's personal finances are his own business!" The nightmare demon exclaimed, hand to his chest like he wad deeply offended. Lorne grimaced and lifted his axe.   
  
"True, and a demon in love is a dangerous thing. We can get a bit obsessive, if you know what I mean."   
  
"Wouldn't know. But I do see what you mean. You know how to use that thing? Because I saw that she-demon kick your ass back there."   
  
"Still standing, sugar puff. Let's get this done. I got a lady to get back to." Lorne said, gesturing the demon forward. The demon leapt at him, fangs bared.   
  
Avoid the fangs, Lorne. Avoid the fangs...  
  
Lorne spun and caught the demon on the back of the head with the butt of the axe handle. It screamed and reeled back, intending to catch Lorne in the arm with it's fangs. Lorne twisted out of the way just as one jagged tooth swept downward, catching the sleeve of his blue shirt as it went.   
  
Lorne tried to adjust in mid-step as the demon rounded on him again, using the big human-like hind paws to swivel in place. It didn't work and he was sent flying as the demon managed to slam a fist into his head. He slammed against the wall of the tunnel and felt a horn crack.   
  
"Ow." Lorne ground out, glaring up at the demon above him.   
  
"Pussy." The demon arched downward with it's fangs, intending to catch Lorne in the chest. Lorne lifted the axe in time, the fangs hooking over the top, the demon's rancid breath hot on Lorne's face.   
  
"Ever heard of flossing?" Lorne quipped, levering his foot up to catch the demon in the gut. It doubled over and Lorne lifted the axe up, cracking one of the deadly fangs in half. The demon yowled in pain and slumped to the ground. "A horn for a tooth, asshole."   
  
Lorne climbed to his feet and kicked the demon in the gut once more. The crumpled nightmare demon winced and tried to get up. Lorne layed a foot on his side and rolled him over, glaring at the demon. The blade of the axe was set at the demons' throat.   
  
"It's antidote time..." The demon smiled a ghastly grin and there was sudden melting around him. Lorne blinked and the demon was gone, melting into the shadows around him. "Fuck.."   
  
"What's the matter, can't catch me?"   
  
"If you'd fight fair, I would..."   
  
"You should know by now that demons don't fight fair. We use our every weapon.." The voice echoed around him and he glared into the thick shadows around him. There was no way he was going to get him if he was in the shadows.   
  
His point was proven as the demon rushed out of the shadows, blindsiding him to the ground once more. Lorne hit the stone and looked up just in time to see him disappear back into the shadows. He started to climb to his feet and it happened again. Lorne grunted as his bruised face connected with stone. It happened twice more before he could even move. Pain laced through his body and his heart thumped wildly in his buttcheek. He wasn't going to beat him like this...   
  
Your every weapon... Lorne suddenly smiled and rolled over, watching as the demon rushed out of shadows. He opened his mouth and let lose the biggest, best, most on-key note he'd ever sang in his life.   
  
The shrill sound echoed off the rounded walls of the tunnel, assaulting the nightmare demon as it descended on him. Knocked out of his shadow form, he landed solidly on the floor of the tunnel next to Lorne, who didn't let the sound drop for a second.   
  
The demon twitched and tried to move, but the sound was too much. Lorne kept it up, not for the first time in his life grateful that he could keep up any note forever. He stood and lifted the axe, then brought it home in the demon's chest.  
  
Lorne's voice and the screams of the demon echoed off the tunnel walls, coming back to Lorne's ears in a satisfying cacophony of sound. Lorne dropped the note and grinned down at the dead demon.   
  
Easy as pie.  
  
***************  
  
Setting---Point Dume, 3:30am  
  
Wesley collapsed to his knees in the sand, the weight in his chest sending him crashing to the earth. He was surprised he'd had the strength to get out of the car, let alone walk to the edge of the bluff. That pulling feeling was still in him and he looked down to the stretch of sand below him. His aching eyes caught sight of Cordelia and Angelus standing outside a crudely drawn pentagram in the sand, something glowing in the center of it. Sparks of lightning arched through the air, licking around the meager barrier of the five pointed star.   
  
He couldn't quite make out what was in the center of the pentagram because Angelus's body was blocking it from his view. He sent a silent command for the vampire to move the hell out of the way, but he stayed in place.   
  
"What are they doing?" Faith asked, next to him, her hand on his chest as if she were keeping his rapidly beating heart inside by the pressure of her hand. It had taken them nearly an hour to get here and she was frazzled, he could tell. Her promise to keep him from dying tonight seemed on the verge of being broken and she knew it. That only made her angrier.   
"End...ending the world..." He gasped out, grabbing a hold of her hand. "Stop them...I'm sorry...can't..can't move..."   
  
"I know Wes. Don't worry; I'll kill em dead for you. And then we'll find out what the hell is wrong." Faith smiled at him and he wished he had the strength to smile back. As it was, he could only blink his eyes when she kissed him quickly on the lips.   
  
He watched her go, jumping over the edge of the small bluff and rolling in the sand. She hit a chanting Cordelia immediately as she hit the bottom, and Wesley watched as the two landed in a sprawl at the edge of the pentagram.   
  
Angelus started and rushed forward, grabbing the Slayer and throwing her off of the demoness. Faith leapt up and went after Angelus immediately, her fists flashing in the lightning overhead. But Wesley wasn't watching her. No, his attention was riveted on the pulsing power point in the center of the pentagram.   
  
Now that he could see what it was, his heart dropped. The all-too familiar orb of obsidian glinted accusingly from the center of the pentagram and he knew...he knew. The spell he had found to open the Quor-toth was the thing that was going to destroy the world.   
  
It was all so clear to him now; he should have known. The prophecy had said the world would end by something ripping a hole in the dimensions. He hadn't thought of it at all, but that was what he'd planned on doing with the spell. But...it wasn't finished. The stone was incomplete and any attempt to rip through the dimensional walls would destabilize the whole thing and...end the world.   
  
Wesley choked and that pulling feeling came back to him. It was much stronger now that he was near the orb and he knew it was his own life-energy calling out to him. It belonged in him and it knew it. It wanted him back and he knew he had to have it back. If the energy was put back into him, the spell would be useless. But it could also kill him. That much power channelled that quickly into a vessal would surely blast the vessal apart. Wesley swallowed and realized he didn't have a choice.   
  
Wesley grimaced and forced his shaking limbs to stand. For once his body obeyed him and he stood on trembling legs. Below him, the fight raged on and he saw Cordelia was in on it now. He spared a thought of worry and thanks for his Slayer. Good Faith...keep them busy....  
  
He started to go down the sand slope, when something grabbed him from behind and tossed him forward. Limbs smacked his and Wesley landed in a painful sprawl at the bottom of the bluff, unable to move, what breath he had left in his body knocked out by the force of landing. He opened one grit-filled eye and stared up into the face of a dead woman.   
  
"Justine.....?"   
  
"Hello Wesley." Justine said, smiling as she lifted a gun in her hands, the barrel pointed straight at Wesley's head.  
  
(end chapter)  
  
***************** 


	20. Chapter Twenty

A/N: Here we go.....  
  
Chapter Twenty:   
  
Setting---The Hyperion Hotel, 4:30am  
  
Lorne rushed through the door of the hotel, sliding in blood a moment before he regained his footing. He prayed he wasn't too late as he bolted up the stairs, hitting the landing and bursting through the door to Fred's room.   
  
The sight of the familiar black scribbles on the walls was comforting for only a moment as he caught sight of the thrashing girl in the corner. The morphine shot had worn off since he'd left and he cursed colorfully. Falling to his knees beside her, he grabbed her chin in his hand and tried to force her attention to him.   
  
"Fred...Fred honey...please...look at me! It's Lorne...please..." He pleaded with her and was rewarded when her unseeing eyes turned on his. She shook and he winced as he saw the shackles had rubbed her wrists raw. And there was so much blood...   
  
His attention was caught by the two puncture wounds on her arm, dark and livid, the viens spiderwebbed black all the way up her arm. It made him sick to see it and he was immediately angry that he couldn't kill the son of a bitch again. But he'd gotten what he needed from the corpse while it was still fresh and warm.   
  
"Rattlesnakes...they're everywhere...." She muttered unseeingly while Lorne reached for her cure.   
  
Pulling the vial out of his pocket, he lifted it to the light and prayed there was enough inside to cure her. He put the yellow demon's blood to Fred's lips and poured it down her throat. The whimpering Seer coughed and sputtered, but Lorne clamped his hand over her mouth and nose, forcing her to swallow.   
  
Then, he waited, her body pulled hard against his, praying to whatever god would listen that she would be okay. That it wasn't too late. He rocked her and talked to her in a soothing voice, hoping she could hear him and that she'd come back to herself. He told her everything and let his heart pour out, knowing he shouldn't, but not having the strength to stop himself. He had to tell her now.   
  
His voice petered out as he suddenly realized her arms had stopped reaching and her murmerings had stopped. His heart lodged in his throat. Oh no....oh god no...please no...  
  
"Fred...?" He shook her and her head rolled on his shoulder, her eyes staring up at him. He waited, praying he hadn't been to late. Suddenly she blinked at him and took a deep trembling breath.   
  
"Lorne? The rattlesnakes got my toes..." She said in such a normal voice that he laughed.   
  
"I know baby...but they're gone now. It's just you and me now, kitten." Lorne grinned widely and brushed a lock of blood soaked hair from her face. "And those rattlesnakes are going to leave you alone from now on."  
  
"Promise?" Fred smiled and layed her head back down in his lap, her hand clutched in his. He took a deep breath and ran his fingers through her hair.   
  
"I promise, kitten. I promise. Whatever happens, they won't ever bother you again. Ever." Lorne said hotly and closed his eyes, his mind wandering back to Wesley and Faith and the fight that was surely going on right now. He could feel it, the air was crackling with energy and he knew wherever they were, something bad was happening.   
  
"She's all dim....all dim now..." Fred suddenly said, making Lorne's eyes snap open.   
  
"What?"   
  
"I saw it, she's all dim and that light is gone. No more shine. No more heart, there isn't a heart anymore." Fred said, her head in his lap, her fingers clenched around his.   
  
"Who?"   
  
"Cordelia...."   
  
****************  
  
Setting---Point Dume, 4:00am  
  
Faith caught movement out of the corner of her eye and wheeled around, ducking a blow Angelus threw at her. Her eyes widened at the sight before her.   
  
Justine. Justine alive and standing with a gun pointed straight at a downed Wesley. How the hell had he gotten down there? Faith answered her own internal question immediately, anger welling her throat. Oh God...  
  
"No!!" She screamed, twisting around and kicking both and Angelus and Cordelia away from herself. The two were surprised and didn't block the blows, but she didn't care. Her mind was narrowed on one thing and one thing only: Wesley. "Justine!"   
  
The redhead turned and glared at her, the gun in her hands unwavering, her long black coat billowing in the off-shore breeze. A grim, determined smile graced her features and Faith fought the urge to wipe it off with her fist.   
  
"Faith...nice to see you again."   
  
"Cut the shit...I thought...I..."   
  
"That you killed me?" Faith could only swallow, her eyes switching back and forth between Justine and Wesley. "You did."  
  
"What?" Wesley croaked from his sprawl in the sand, so weak could barely move his head. Faith cursed under her breath; he was in bad shape and it was killing her. Whatever was doing this to him had to be stopped.   
  
"We're all dead. You, me, her and those two demon fuckers over there. I wish more of you Connor Investigations assholes were here, but what can you do?" Justine ground out, suddenly firing in Angelus and Cordelia's direction. Faith turned in the sand, her feet feeling like they were sinking in as she did. Angelus and Cordelia, forgotten until now, were sneaking up behind them, waiting to pounce. They ducked the shot and glared at the three of them. "Destroy that thing."   
  
Cordelia's eyes trailed over to the glowing obsidian stone; Faith noticed Wesley's gaze was riveted on it too, like a hungry man looking at his last meal. Cordelia barked a laugh and crossed her arms over her chest. "You honestly think you're going to stop this? The world is ending and we're all going straight to hell tonight."   
  
"You've got one thing right, bitch." Justine spat, the gun still clutched in her hands. Faith clenched her fists and tried to keep her anger under control. She knew she'd kill Justine if she tried to hurt Wesley, despite that sick, leaden feeling in her chest. The bitch had been alive the whole time....  
  
"Justine...help us stop them...please...we can do this together." Faith began before she knew she was talking. Justine wheeled on her and pointed the gun straight at her head.   
  
"I don't fucking think so, Slayer. You know, if things had gone according to plan, you'd be dead by now and so would Angelus. But no....you both had to fuck it up. Someone's always fucking things up."   
  
"Ohh...hear that Faith? She's blaming us." Angelus spoke up, grinning from ear to ear as he sauntered forward. "Big surprise. Justine can't handle the fact that no one needs her. You were better than her and it drove her nuts. Wesley had the loyalty of his little family and what did Justine have? Recruits and nothing more. She couldn't even save them. And Holtz? That was some fucked up shit right there."  
  
"Shut up Angelus." Faith shot at the cocky vampire, dividing her attention between him and Justine.   
  
"What about you Faith? Fact is, you're expendable, Slayer. You fall and another one just like you rises up somewhere in the world. You're worthless and you should be put down like the dog you are." Angelus countered, wheeling on her and grinning that evil grin. "And Wesley? Wesley...well he's nothing but a traitor. But, we all knew that didn't we? Can't let him forget what he did to my son. And that's what brought us all here today. Wesley's guilt and Wesley's pet rock."   
  
Faith trembled and locked eyes with Wesley, seeing the guilt plain there. "What?"   
  
"Oh, she doesn't know? That stone orb over there is chock full o' Wes and just waiting to rip through the fabric of the world and make it all come tumbling down. It's all Wes's fault. Ohhh...I just love those words." Angelus grinned again and moved up next to Faith.   
  
"Okay, enough with the blame-fest." Cordelia said, her voice strangely quiet and echoing as she spoke. "Time to get this shit done." Her body began to glow and Faith blinked in the twin lights of the orb and the demon.  
  
"Why are you so keen to end the world, Cordelia?" Faith asked, glaring at the glowing demon. Cordelia's harsh gaze lighted on Faith and she smiled.   
  
"Why the hell not? I made the world this way, I might as well undo it."   
  
"What?"   
  
"Well, since we're doing the sharing thing and we're about one chant away from oblivion, I'll tell you." Cordelia smiled widely, haunted guilt in her glowing eyes. "Everything here happened because of me. I killed Angel and this bastard took his place. It started with one mistake I made a long time ago. One I'm supposed to pay for for the rest of my life. But it's not going to happen. End of the world, end of my suffering."   
  
Wesley laughed from his sprawl in the sand. "You stupid, self-centered woman."   
  
"Fuck you Wesley. I don't need your guilt and mine." Cordelia spat and moved toward the glowing stone.   
  
"Fuck you Cordelia. You don't fuckin--" Faith suddenly went flying as Angelus grabbed her and threw her in Wesley's direction. She didn't even have time to react; she hadn't realized he'd moved within arm's length of her. She hit the sandy side of the bluff and rolled down next to Wesley.   
  
"Let's get this done." Angelus spat, not meeting Cordelia's eye. He didn't like what he saw there.   
  
"Glad you're finally getting off your ass abo--"A shot suddenly rang out and Cordelia stopped, her mouth falling open and her eyes blinking stupidly. Looking down at her chest, she saw a large blossom of crimson staining the front of her white blouse, a ragged hole in the expensive silk. She looked back up and saw Justine smiling at her.   
  
"I..." Cordelia fell to her knees, her fingers clutched over the wound, blood flowing thickly between her fingers. The glow wavered and then died like a flashlight with low batteries.   
  
"Cordelia?" Angelus sounded child-like as he stared at the blood and his lover collapsed in the sand.   
  
"I told you we were all going to hell. Starting with her." Justine said, throwing her huge black coat off. Faith's eyes widened as she saw the explosives attached to Justine's torso. There was enough C-4 there to blow up an entire city block. She suddenly understood what the woman had planned.   
  
"Justine...no.." But Justine ignored her and looked down at the timer on her chest, hitting a single green button before looking back up again. The glowing red numbers clicked on and Faith's breath caught in her throat.   
  
2 minutes and counting....  
  
"Fuck this shit..." Faith climbed to her feet and made a grab for Wesley, but the Watcher was already climbing to his feet, very, very slowly for Faith's peace of mind. "Come on Wes.."   
  
"You fucking bitch! You shot her..." Angelus roared, advancing on Justine, who just smiled and raised her hands to the sky.   
  
"I'm just finishing Daniel's work." Justine managed to say before Angelus grabbed her around the throat and threw her away from the pentagram. She rolled and Faith winced, praying the explosives wouldn't go off. She needed every second she had to get Wesley out of there. Shots rang out as Justine tried to hit Angelus. Faith ducked a shot as it grazed her cheek.   
  
"COME ON, Wes!!" She screamed, all but picking him up as she climbed the bluff. Wesley resisted her, his breath coming in short, choppy gasps as he looked back at the stone orb in the center of the pentagram. "Wesley!!"   
  
"I have to...it...it wants me...it's me..." Wesley said, his blue eyes focusing and unfocusing as he wrenched his arm out of her grip.   
  
"No!"   
  
Time slowed as Wesley put on a burst of strength she didn't think he could possess, running full out toward the glowing orb, right past a fighting Angelus and Justine. Right past a downed Cordelia, bright red sand all around her in a spreading stain.   
  
Faith jumped down from the bluff and ran after him, not bothering to glance in Justine's direction. She knew they were almost out of time. Damn Wesley...what was he doing? She was answered a second later as he violated the circle of the five pointed star etched in the sand. One of the sparks of lightning licked up his chest and centered on him.   
  
"Wesley!" Faith screamed as she got to the edge of the circle, reaching for Wesley. At the edge of her hearing, she thought she heard a helicopter and voices. She ignored them and reached for Wes, trying to avoid the sparks of lightning coming off the stone in waves.  
  
"Hit the stone! Get them!" The voice sounded vaguely familiar and Faith turned her head in the direction it was coming from. Get who? Suddenly, another shot rang out from high on the bluff and Faith winced. The glowing stone in front of Wesley shattered into a million pieces as a bullet struck it.  
  
Pure white energy spiralled up out of broken stone, throwing Faith backward. She clutched for purchase and found Wesley's arm, her nails digging in as she held on as tightly as possible. The energy spiralled upward and then raced back down, slamming into Wesley's body and lifting him out of the sand backward. Faith was dragged along with him as he was thrown into the bluff once more. He screamed in a pain so great Faith nearly shattered under the power of it. And then, as he slumped beside her, the scream stopped and he was still.   
  
Then, somewhere off to her right, something exploded and she didn't have to ask what. She couldn't see the three down the beach, but she didn't need to. The explosion blinded her and knocked the breath out of her lungs. The world shook and she felt the sand and earth on the bluff give way above her. She had the sense of mind to throw herself over Wesley's unconscious form before an avalanche of dirt covered them both.   
  
Faith had a moment to wonder if she was already dead before a rock slammed into her head and she fell into deep, blissful darkness.   
  
(end chapter)  
  
*******************  
  
A/N: Yeah...I killed some characters. I'm a bad, bad fan. hehehe... 


	21. Epilogue

A/N: Last chapter! Oi! And here I thought it would never come! :D I want to thank each and every one of you who reviewed this story. (you know who you are!). You guys rock!   
  
Epilogue:   
  
Setting---St. Vincent's Hospital, the next night  
  
Every possible inch of his body ached. He forced his heavy eyelids open and peered out at the world around him, not sure what to expect. He took a deep breath and felt a throbbing pain in his chest, but for once, the pain wasn't a hollow feelling. He blinked in confusion at the hospital room around him.   
  
"Morning sleepyhead."   
  
His head turned in the direction of the voice and he found himself smiling. "Faith?" Wesley croaked upon seeing the girl perched in a plastic chair next to his bed, one hand wrapped around his limp palm. She smiled at him and he saw relief flood out of her expression. She leaned up and kissed him immediately, pulling away when he wanted more.   
  
"You okay?"   
  
"I'm not sure...I feel...strange."   
  
"You should. You nearly died, Wes."   
  
"What? When? How did we get here...the last thing I remember is you breaking the obsidian..." Wesley swallowed hard and tried not to think about the stone. All that time he'd spent collecting the power to open the Quor-toth and now it was all wasted.   
  
"After that, Justine's little...er...big bomb went off and we got buried in an avalanche. I was knocked the fuck out and you were gone too. I'm not too clear on the details after that, but I guess that lawyer bitch swept down like a fucking guardian angel and got her commandos to pull us out before we suffocated. She told me she'd followed Justine to Point Dume. And she's the one that broke the stone, not me."  
  
"Oh. Well...I'd thank her if I didn't know better than to look for a knife."  
  
"That's what I thought. She could have taken us both out, but she didn't. She's up to something."  
  
"We'll worry about that later. Right now I just want to--"Wesley suddenly tried to sit up. "Lorne! What about Fred?!" Faith pushed him back down with a strong, but gentle hand.   
  
"She's fine. She's actually at the hospital right now. Lorne brought her in for stitches. Which reminds me..." Faith clenched his hand hers. "I don't care how, but we're getting rid of her visions."   
  
"I know. We'll find a way." Wesley sighed heavily. "But they're fine?"   
  
"Peachy keen daddy-o."   
  
"What about you?"   
  
"Knock on the nugget isn't going to stop me, you know that."   
  
"And Justine?" Faith's grin faded for a moment and then it returned full strength.  
  
"I feel bad but I'm not going to beat myself up over something she did to herself. She was going to kill you and I would have killed her if she'd held that gun on you a second longer." She seemed unusually happy about talking about this and Wesley frowned.   
  
"Why are you smiling?"   
  
"Because I've got a mission now and I know that it's the right one. One I can finally believe in."   
  
"Still, you're feeling awful cheerful." Wesley commented, wanting to be caught up in her excitement.  
  
"Post slayage haze; gets me all kinds of juiced. Plus, saving the world? Never a downer." Wesley managed to grin at the beautiful Slayer. Her own grin melted off her face and she leaned forward in her chair. "I know all about that pet rock you had and about why you were collecting all that energy and I swear to God if you ever, EVER try something that stupid again, I will beat the living shit out of you. Got me?"   
  
Wesley was taken aback. "What?"   
  
"You heard me! That little rock that almost ended the world yesterday was a clear-cut case of attempted suicide. I told you I wasn't gonna let you die and I meant it. Hell you almost did! All that damned energy going back where it belong almost did you in! Start that shit again and I'll be forced to...do something really unpleasant to you. Understand?"   
  
Wesley could only nod his head. He knew better than to argue with a Slayer, especially Faith. His Slayer.   
  
"Faith I...I need to tell you something..." He started, not really knowing where to start, but knowing that now was the time for the "I love you's" and the "we can't but we will's". Faith's eyes met his and she bit down on her lip.   
  
"Knock, knock. Did I hear English talking?" Gunn's voice broke through the tension between them and Wesley turned with a smile at his best friend. He suddenly remembered Anne and he sat up in the bed as Gunn pushed his wheelchair-bound wife through the door. Her right shoulder was wrapped up in heavy bandages, but she looked healthy and whole otherwise. Wesley felt a wash of relief come over him.   
  
"Yeah, Watcher-mine woke up a few minutes ago, all business of course."   
  
"Well, he is an uptight English asshole you know." Gunn grinned, wheeling Anne to the other side of Wesley's bed.   
  
"Shut up you, and no cursing around the baby!" Anne said, grinning up at her husband, her face nearly glowing in the dim hospital lights. Said baby was wrapped up in her arms lovingly, a tiny, chubby fist poking out and waving energetically in the air.   
  
"My bad, hon." Gunn said, perching on the edge of Faith's seat as he planted a kiss on top of the Slayer's head. "Hey you."   
  
"Hey dork." Faith responded immediately, squeezing Wesley's hand.   
  
"So, how are you English? I mean, how are you before I beat the living shit out of you for not telling me about the Apocolypse?" Gunn said, crossing his hands over his chest and glaring at him.   
  
"Oh...Charles, I'm sorry. I thought you should be here with Anne." Wesley said, leaning back against the pillow, his eyes heavily shadowed. "Are you angry?"  
  
"A little, but I get why you didn't tell me. Still, end of the world and all, I should have been beside you, bro."   
  
"Sorry. Next apocolypse, you'll be first picked for the teams."   
  
"No one likes a smartass Wes. And that smug smile is just making me want to kick your booty." Gunn said with a grin as Wesley tried to wipe the smile from his lips.   
  
"Why is everyone threatening to beat me up? Do you I not look dead enough?"  
  
"Not even close, love bug." Wesley turned his head and saw Lorne standing in the doorway with Fred tucked at this side like she was born there.   
  
"Speaking of looking like hell. You two...look like hell." Anne said, looking up from the bundle in her arms. Fred rushed into the room and sat down bonelessly at Anne's feet, peeking her head over the edge of the blanket and blinking at the baby. Lorne sauntered into the room and leaned against the wall.   
  
"Well, I don't call kicking demon ass a walk in the park."   
  
"And marathon visions with the screaming and the puking and the wiggle wooply in your skull. It's not a pile of poisonous duggleberries. Ha! I wish!" Fred piped up, touching a tiny finger with her own. Wesley saw her wrists were stitched closed, raw cuts in the flesh made by the shackles.   
  
"Yeah, what she said." Lorne grinned widely and fondly gazed down at the Seer. "But, crisis averted. Once again, Connor Investigations saves an otherwise disasterous day."   
  
"We're changing the name."   
  
"Pardon?" Gunn spoke up, brow furrowing as he looked at Wesley.   
  
"We're changing the name. We...I know now that what we used to have won't come back to what it was. Connor is gone and so are Cordelia and Angel. They both made their choices in life and they've been killed because of them. They wanted to die because they couldn't handle this world. I used to understand that." Faith squeezed his hand and his voice picked up in volume. "But I know now that living in the past, dwelling on your guilt is a fool's road. It'll lead you to self-destruction and I...I don't want that. I have a family and friends and you all...well you're all I need. I have to let Connor go."   
  
There was silence a moment and then Lorne spoke up. "So...umm...I'd hate to break this angsty moment up, but umm...I was wondering something."   
  
"What's that, Lorne?" Anne asked, running her fingers through Fred's hair.   
  
"Well...the signs. All of them came to pass, am I right?"   
  
"Yeah." Faith confirmed, chewing on her lower lip. "So?"   
  
"So whose death was it that triggered it all? And if all the signs came to pass, why didn't the world end?"   
  
"Good questions. Ones I'm afraid I don't have the answers to. It doesn't really matter though. Angelus, Cordelia or Justine's death could have been the one. Who knows? All that matters is that we stopped the end of the world and things are righted again."   
  
"You've got a point, bro. We won, why worry? As long as Wesley knows about--"  
  
"Don't start Gunn. I already gave him the 'spell bad' speech and he was responsive. Let's let it drop and just be thankful the dumbass isn't dead from re-absorbing his own energy."   
  
"Yes, thank you Faith for putting my missteps into such a nice neat package. I'll be sure to run my every move by you next time." Wesley snapped at her with no real snark behind his words.  
  
"Make sure you do." Faith replied, leaning back against Gunn's leg.   
  
"So...can I hold the damned baby now?" The moment was broken as Fred giggled up at Wesley. Anne handed the baby over immediately, watching fondly as Wesley cradled the bundle in his arms. He counted up ten fingers and ten toes, an awed smile on his lips.   
  
"Her name is Lily Alonna." Gunn said, sharing a glance with his wife. Wesley looked up and grinned.   
  
"A beautiful name for the most beautiful woman I've ever seen in my life." Faith coughed and Wesley flushed. "Second."   
  
"No...you're right Wes. First." Faith said, standing and moving to the head of Wesley's bed, staring down into Lily's tiny face. "She's gorgeous."   
  
"So now that my daughter's got a name, what about our business? We need something with...hope, you know?"   
  
"I've got one."   
  
"What's that, Wes?"   
  
"The Wyndam-Pryce Agency!"   
  
Wesley grinned at the collective chorus of "No!" directed straight at him. Things were finally okay. He had a feeling that nothing could go wrong now.   
  
**************  
  
Setting---Wolfram & Hart, same night  
  
Lilah Morgan walked carefully through the labyrinthian tunnels beneath Wolfram & Hart's office building. Her heels clacked loudly on the floor and she took deep breath. At the end of the stark white tunnel, she stopped and flashed her security card at two muscle-bound guards. They waved her through immediately and she entered the overly bright room.  
  
"Lilah."   
  
At the sound of her name being spoken, she jumped and squinted into the brightness. A smile smirked her lips at what she saw.   
  
"Hello. Enjoying yourself?" She eyed the splash of bright red that was smeared across the floor. The guard who'd been assigned to feed him was splayed at his feet. He didn't move, only stared at her with his yellow, furious eyes. "She's dead. We found her bits and pieces on the beach."   
  
He flinched, but didn't move away from the kill in the corner. She almost felt sorry for him, but she didn't. This was just business. "Why did you save me?"   
  
"It's my job."   
  
"You should have let me die. With her." There was a cold fury in his eyes that shook her to the core; but her mask stayed in place and she smiled, ignoring his words.  
  
"You want to get them back don't you?" He nodded his head at her words and moved up against the heavy glass partition that separated the cell from the rest of the room. "Well I have the perfect plan."  
  
"Not without her." He growled, his fingers clawed against the glass, blood dripping down his chin.  
  
"What do you mean? She's dead."   
  
"We're getting her back. And then I'm going to kill them all."   
  
"I'm not sure if there's a way..."   
  
"Find a way. Find a way to bring her back and I'll do anything you want. I'll sign any contract. Just bring her back."   
  
His jewel bright eyes bore into hers and she smiled widely. "That's what I wanted to hear. I'll start the process."   
  
She turned on her heel and started to walk away, but his broken voice called out to her. He sounded like a broken man clutching at his last straw. "Just like she was?"  
  
"Of course Angelus. Just like she was."  
  
(end story)  
  
******************  
  
A/N: Yeah, I'm evil. heheehe...don'tcha just love it? 


End file.
